


Old Life, Same Alter Ego

by Syaleo



Series: New Life New Alter Ego [2]
Category: Danny Phantom, Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Pictures
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-11
Updated: 2019-12-06
Packaged: 2020-03-01 03:53:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 52,198
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18792448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Syaleo/pseuds/Syaleo
Summary: (Part 2 of the story! Go check out part 1: New Life, New Alter Ego)Ghosts, akumas, magical superheros, and a 15 year old girl name Kaetlyn Shire. When moving back to her hometown, Amity Park, after living in Paris, France, she discovers that ghosts are actually real. Now not only does she have to worry about fighting akumas as a superhero, but fighting ghosts with an odd ghost boy named Danny Phantom. Strange... That name is awfully similar to one of her friends, Danny Fenton.





	1. Welcome Back

**Author's Note:**

> Just to remind everyone that this is the second part of the whole story. You can read Kaetlyn's adventures in France in the first part "New Life, New Alter Ego".

A ghost with green skin and gold clothing and jewelry flew through the streets of Amity Park. She glanced back and forth in search of where she left it.

“She’s getting away! After her!” A boy with dark skin in a yellow sweater yelled. He had a constantly beeping device in his hands.

He stopped in the middle of a crossroads. A girl with short black hair and a boy with white hair caught up to him.

“Are you sure that ghost detector isn’t broken?” The girl asked.

“My parents built that thing themselves. It detects  _ me _ just fine.” The white haired boy stated, his feet replaced with a ghost tail as he hovered above the sidewalk.

“Then it’s probably detecting you instead.”

The boy in the sweater shushed the others, pointing the ghost detector  in different directions.

“Sam’s right. All I’m picking up is Danny’s signal.” His phone began ringing. He took it out of his pocket and answered it.

“I think I got all the ghosts in this section of town.” A third boy informed, “What about that ghost woman you chased after?”

“Lost her. We’re heading back.” 

The woman had been long gone. She found a portal in the wall of one of the buildings. The green light outline slowly closing in on the portal, causing it to shrink. The woman slipped through the portal just in time. Away from the strange world outside, but stuck inside the dark void once again. 

________________________________________________________

 

A girl with short light brown hair, blue eyes, and fair skin took the cardboard from her father.

“Careful, Kaetlyn. It’s a little heavy.” Her father said. The man had curly, light brown hair with tanned skin and hazel eyes. He wore a green t-shirt and beige pants.

“I got it dad!” The girl called back as she walked through the front door, dodging her mother as the woman walked out to take a box herself.

Kaetlyn placed the box in the living room. She heard a stomach growl. She took a strip of jerky from the plastic bag in the front pocket of her dark blue jacket. She tore off a piece for herself and tossed the rest into her hood. She wasn’t saving it for later, because a little wolf kwami had already eaten it all.

“Can I have another piece?” The white kwami with topaz eyes asked, popping her head out from the hood.

“No. And put your head back down!” Kaetlyn hissed, “What if my parents see you?”

“They’re outside moving boxes right-”

“Kaetlyn?” Her mother asked, walking in with a box, “Are you talking to someone?”

“Uh… Just… calling Sam! We wanted to meet up later once we finish unpacking!”

Her mother smiled. She brushed her hand through her black hair after placing the box down on the kitchen countertop. Her blue eyes were just like Kaetlyn’s. Actually, Kaetlyn had the same eyes as her mother.

“Well, if you go now, you might be able to see her before your dad catches you off duty.”

Kaetlyn’s face lit up. She rushed to give her mom a hug before rushing out the door. “Thanks, Mom! Love you!”

Kaetlyn Shire: A girl born in Amity Park and grew up with her friends, Tucker Foley, Danny Fenton, Sam Manson, and Reid Forman. Halfway through her freshman year of school, her father found a better paying job in Paris, France. Her first semester of school definitely helped with learning French. 

During their time there, a lot has happened. New friends, new sights to see, some new superheroes, and a  _ lot  _ of supervillains. But, it got too dangerous for the likes of her parents, so they moved back over the summer, hoping it would be safer.

Kaetlyn arrived at the doorstep of Sam’s house. She rang the doorbell and waited a few seconds. It opened to reveal a girl with a short black ponytail on the other side. She wore a black sleeveless crop top, choker, and  boots with metal soles. She had purple leggings underneath a black and green plaid skirt with a bracelet on each wrist. 

Her purple eyes widened with excitement and surprise to see her friend.

“Kaetlyn! I didn’t know you were back!” 

“Sam, come on! Let’s go get Danny and Tucker!” Kaetlyn took her friend by the wrist and dragged her to each of the boy’s houses. Both were just as shocked to see their friend from France.

They headed to the park to catch up. They hung out beneath the leaves of a tree.

“I can’t believe it’s been so long! So, what’s been going on while I was out of the country?” Kaetlyn asked, leaning against the trunk.

The three teenagers exchanged a strange look, as if trying to figure out what to say.

“Oh, uh...nothing much.” Tucker said, shrugging his shoulders. He had dark skin with turquoise eyes; wearing a yellow sweater and green pants.

“Really? I remember Sam complaining about Paulina when I first got to France. Are you dating her yet?” She teased.

“Uh… well, you know… didn’t work out so…” Danny mumbled. He had spiky black hair, blue eyes, and wore a white t-shirt with red lining and blue jean pants.

Kaetlyn giggled watching Danny find an excuse. “Come one, I bet you couldn’t even talk to her!” Paulina was a pretty and popular girl in school. She was the one every guy fell for.

“Dropping the subject: how about it in Paris?” Sam asked.

“Well, akuma attacks got kinda bad…” Akumas were supervillains in France. It hard to explain to someone who hadn’t experienced a supervillain attack themselves, but akumas were just normal Parisian citizens who gained superpowers from negative emotions. Explaining that to her friends lead to a few scratching heads.

“Well, it’s not like it’s an ability.. There’s a rare species of… moths that cause it?” 

“Well, we’re not in Paris, so let’s not worry about it. Besides, I don’t feel like thinking anymore.” Danny said.

“Yeah, summer is for forgetting about the worries of mental labour and catching up on the hours of sleep school robs its students from!” Tucker added, crossing his arms.

“You have a point, but I don’t know if I’d phrase it like  _ that.”  _

The four teenagers spent the next hour or so catching up on what’s happened over the course of half a year. While Kaetlyn dealt with magical powers and superheroes and villains, her friends have been dealing with ghost attacks. 

“Oh, yeah. That’s right. Wasn’t there a ghost called Inviso-Bill or something?” Kaetlyn asked. She remembered Sam telling her something about a ghost boy that went around helping people.

“I think that name is stupid. Can’t people come up with something better?” Danny complained, crossing his arms while Tucker stifled a laugh. Kaetlyn smiled. It was nice to have some friends to share history with. She had made some friends in Paris, but it wasn’t the same as her childhood friends. They shared a deep connection. 

Before things got too sappy, Danny got nervous and said he had to leave. Tucker followed.

Confused, Kaetlyn asked, “What’s that about?”

“Ah, who knows. Boys are boys.” Sam replied, “You know what, I actually remembered I had to...study. Yeah! Study! See you!”

“But it’s summer! What are you studying for?!” Kaetlyn yelled as the emo girl ran off.

Lunna -The white kwami from before- popped her head out of the girl’s hood. “Your friends seem interesting.” She said.

“They’re a special bunch. I say I’m the weirdest for deciding to be friends with them.” Lunna giggled at the girl’s response.

Kaetlyn walked back home. They couldn’t get their old house back, but it was close enough to be in walking distant from her friends, as proven before.

“Watch out!” The voice of a teenager boy warned. Kaetlyn halted to a dead stop when what looked like an overweight man came flying through the walls of the building, but the bricks didn’t crumble from the impact. Did he phase through somehow?

Not long after came a boy with white hair, seemingly phasing through the wall as well. 

Kaetlyn looked back at Lunna, confused. The kwami only shrugged in response.

“I think we should go check this out.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

Kaetlyn looked around, making sure no one was there. “Moon, Rise!”

With a flash of blinding white light, Kaetlyn’s clothes changed into a skin tight white suit with a white mask covering the upper half of her face, wrapping around her head, and two wolf-shaped ears on the top of her head, which were attached to a headband hidden under her hair.

Kaetlyn admired the outfit. It’s been a while since she’s had to transform. Her expression turned disappointed when looking at her feet and hands. She forgot about her broken miraculous. Instead of gloves and boots, she had grey bandages, and the tail to finish off her wolf-like costume was a tattered grey cloth wrapped around her waist. If her miraculous wasn’t broken, her outfit would look so much nicer.

Kaetlyn leapt onto the roof, looking for where those two guys could have gone. She heard shouting in the distance and followed it. 

“My house!” She exclaimed. She looked into the window and saw the man and boy duking it out in the kitchen. The man floated above the flooring, using some sort of magic to make the moving boxes float? No, ghosts were a thing. It was never really confirmed to her, but it had to be, right? Unless these were a pair of strange akumas.

Kaetlyn opened the door, but swung it shut to dodge a small box that was thrown. She peeked inside, then snuck in. She didn’t know if both of these people were villains or not.

She constantly scrambled to catch the items and boxes thrown from the fight. Just where were her parents during all of this?!

Having enough of this destruction, Kaetlyn shouted, “Why don’t you freaks stop destroying other people’s property?” They stopped and turned around, confused. “You know, I never believed ghosts really existed. But then again, we got magical superheroes, why not ghosts, too?”

“And...you are…?” The ghost boy with white hair asked. Kaetlyn recognized him a little. He seemed familiar…

“You can call me Lune. What about you?” It sounded more like a statement than a question.

“I am the box ghost! I have power over all containers cardboard and square!” The man the boy was fighting said in the most stupid sounding voice ever. Was he doing that on purpose, or just an actually idiot?

The man used his ghost powers to lift the boxes all over the house. Lune and the ghost boy stood back-to-back, waiting for what’s going to happen next.

“I swear if anything in these boxes break, I’ll break you.” Lune told the ghost boy menacingly, clenching her fist.

“Jeez, calm down. This guy isn’t that big of a problem anyways.” The boy’s hand glew with green light, then he shot the light at the guy who called himself ‘the box ghost’. The boxes fell to the ground, Lune caught some, the ghost boy caught the rest. His power of flight certainly comes in handy.

While Lune tried putting all the boxes into the room they were labeled for, the ghost boy took out a green and silver thermos and pointed it at the box ghost. The thermos sucked up the ghost, then the boy closed the lid.

Lune punched the boy in the face. She caught the thermos he dropped and pointed at him.

“Okay, I don’t know entirely what’s going on, but I know you’re a ghost, and ghosts are supposed to be evil!”

“That is totally bizarre logic!”

“Well, I’m kinda new in town. And just because you defeated that ghost doesn’t mean you’re not evil, too.” Lune opened the lid. The boy raised his hands in surrender.

“Okay, okay! Just put the thermos down and I can explain!”

“You nearly destroyed my- Er… This person’s house! Not to mention what else you could have damaged on your way here!”

“I can tell you I don’t mean to destroy anything, but what can you do with ghosts, right?”

“Tch.” Lune lowered the thermos, yet gripped it tightly in her hands.

The ghost called himself Danny Phantom. Looking at him, he was who Amity called Inviso-Bill. Phantom was the crime fighting ghost that went around Amity Park, searching for ghost baddies and sending back to where they belonged. As long as it didn’t cause any problems anywhere else, Lune didn’t bother asking where he brought them.

They heard a car park in the driveway. Without a word, Phantom phased through the floor and disappeared. Meantime, Lune had to scramble up the stairs and hop out her future bedroom window.

She leapt across the roofs of buildings until she got a few blocks down. She hopped down into an empty trashcan and transformed back into Kaetlyn. She hopped out the trash can and casually walked down the sidewalk.

“Great, now I smell like garbage…” She complained.

“You didn’t have to hide in the garbage can, though.” Lunna said from her hood.

“Where else did you want me to hide? I know almost everyone in this side of town. If they saw me transform back, it’d be worse than just some random person seeing me.”

“How?”

“Well…”

“Kaetlyn!” Lunna hid and Kaetlyn turned around at the sound of a boy’s voice.

“Oh, Reid! Hey.” 

Reid had messy black hair and brown eyes. He wore a light blue jean jacket unzipped over an orange pullover. His dark blue jeans rolled up to his ankles and his orangish-yellow sneakers had black designs and white soles. He and Kaetlyn became friends in Casper Middle school. He studied abroad in France towards the last quarter in school, then went back to Amity around the same time Kaetlyn got back.

“Glad to see you’re okay. I hope no ghosts attacked you.”

Kaetlyn smiled. He had no idea. “Yeah. It’s still hard to believe they’re real. I just thought Danny’s parents were fanatics of the supernatural.”

Reid laughed. Danny’s parents -Jack and Maddie Fenton- were ghost hunters. Yep. They still got paid for it, though. Now they wouldn’t seem like the town’s crazy people...half the time.

They walked back to Kaetlyn’s house. Reid walked right in, greeting her parents as they opened the bags of fast food of Nasty Burger: the common hangout of Kaetlyn and her friends.

They were such close friends that as long as one of the Shire’s were home, Reid was always welcomed in.

“Hey, Reid!” Her mother greeted, “Sorry, we don’t have anything for you to eat. We would’ve gotten an extra combo for you if we knew you’d stop by.”

“It’s fine. I had some steak my Mom cooked. I just came to see if you needed help or anything.”

“We’re good.” Kaetlyn said, walking over to the temporary foldable dining table to steal a fry, “Why don’t you go find Danny and the others. They ran off earlier. Don’t know if something was wrong.”

“Oh, okay. If you’re good I’ll just head off. Nice to see you.” Reid waved goodbye as he walked out. These quick little drop bys were very common, so the family didn’t think much of it.

“Okay, bye!” Her father waved back. The family then sat down and dug into their burgers, which were delicious despite the restaurant's name.

 

Reid knocked on Danny’s door. When her older sister, Jazz,  answered, she called for him and walked off.

“Hey, what’s up?” The Fenton boy asked.

“I just talked to Kaetlyn. You know, you wouldn’t have to worry about sneaking around when you sense a ghost if we just told her about your powers.” Reid said.

Danny quickly shut the door and shushed his friend. “Keep in mind my parents are in earshot of us! I mention of the word ‘ghost’, and you know the damage they’d cause.”

“I’m just saying, Kaetlyn lives here now. It’d be easier to just tell her you’re half ghost than all of us sneaking off. Maybe just you coming up with an excuse to leave the scene would work, but all four of us?”

“I know, I know, but how do you think she’ll react? You were there when the accident happened, it’s a little harder to believe when you’re just telling the story.”

“She lived in France with supervillains and magical powers for half a year. I think she’ll be able to handle some ghosts.”

“It’s not only that.” Danny rubbed the back of his neck, “You know that superhero from Paris you talked about? Lune I think?”

Reid nodded.

“Well, I kinda ran into her when fighting the box ghost.”

“What?!”

He motioned his hands to keep the volume down. “It looked like her. White suit, ears, tail, everything. She spoke fluent English, too. The accent was spot on!”

“Okay… That’s weird…”

“Tell me about it.”

Reid sighed, “Okay. We’ll worry about all of this later. Honestly, I just want to enjoy my first few weeks of summer with as little ghost problems as possible.”

“If anything, _ I _ should be the one saying that.”

Reid waved goodbye and walked back home. Danny went back inside. Even though the group was reunited, it might be the weirdest summer yet.


	2. Involved With Ghosts

Kaetlyn and her friends sat in a booth at Nasty Burger, waiting for their food. With the booth only holding up to four people and there being five in the group, Reid took a chair from an empty table and sat in at the end of theirs.

Tucker was playing games on his phone while Reid, Kaetlyn, and Sam chatted. Danny was staring down, not paying attention to anything

“Hey, Danny?” Kaetlyn asked. No response.

Sam waved her hand in front of her face. “Danny.” She echoed. He blinked and looked up at his friends. “You were totally zoning out.”

“Oh, sorry. Things have been on my mind lately.”

“Order 732?” One of the cashiers called.

“That’s us. I guess I’ll go get it.” Kaetlyn said, scooting out of the booth.

“I’ll help.” Reid got up too. 

“What things?” Sam asked, returning to the conversation.

“You know that French superhero? The wolf one?”

“Yeah, Lune. Kaetlyn talks about her and the other superheroes a lot on video calls.”

“Let me guess,” Tucker intervened, “you got the hots for her, don’t you?”

“Ew!  _ No!”  _ Danny cringed at the thought, “I’m saying I think I saw her. She came in while I was fighting a ghost.”

“What?!” Sam exclaimed.

“She spoke fluent English, too! I don’t know how she got here.”

“Maybe akumas are making their way to America?” Tucker exclaimed.

“We could ask Kaetlyn. She knows more about these heroes and villains thing than the rest of us.” Sam suggested.

“I guess, but how am I supposed to say I saw Lune without mentioning that I’m-”

“Guess who got the food!” Kaetlyn smiled, placing the tray she had on the table. Reid placed his beside it.

“Okay, this order looks like yours, Danny.” She handed one of the paper bags to her friend across from her. Tucker found his bag and started eating. After everyone sorted through the food and found their orders, they began eating in awkward silence.

“So…” Kaetlyn tried finding a conversation starter, “Ghosts.” She didn’t see everyone tense up at the word. “They seem pretty cool. Aren’t they all suppose to be evil, though?”

“Ah… well, I don’t think all of them are bad.” Danny murmured.

“Y-yeah, some can be cool. It’s just not as common.” Tucker added before sipping his soda.

“Did any of you have any experiences with ghosts?”

Tucker responded by spitting out his soda all of the person directly across from him; Sam. He smiled nervously as soda dripped from her agitated face and hair.

“We’ve been around when some ghosts attacked…” Reid said.

“But, do they actually try to harm others or are they just there to scare you?”

“Why? Plan on hunting them?”

“Reid…” Danny growled. The boy gave a teasing smile in return.

“No. It’s just that my parents decided it was best to move back since it was safer. I don’t know how spirits of the dead causing havoc here is any better than normal people being akumatized overseas. The only difference is that we’ve lived here longer.”

“I don’t know about the situation in general, but I think it’s ‘safer’ for the simple reason of you guys knowing more folks here.” Reid rested his head on his hand as he answered, “Think about it, if there  _ was  _ something dangerous, would you feel more relieved knowing your child has family friends to protect them if they’re away, or a crowded city full of random strangers who don’t know you enough to really care about where you are?”

“I guess. It could also be the reason that none of us are prone to become supervillains and attacking everyone else in spite.”

“That’s a simpler way of putting it…”

Kaetlyn laughed, sipping her soda. She noticed Danny. She could see his breath as he breathed out.

“Danny, are you cold? I can see your breath.”

He covered his mouth, standing up as he frantically made an excuse to leave, “Probably. Yeah, I should go get a jacket or something. Maybe ask them to turn up the AC in here.”

She turned to Tucker and Sam, wearing a confused expression.

“You know, I should probably check on him, just to see if he’s okay. See ya!” Tucker rushed off. Kaetlyn looked at Reid, expecting him to do what Tucker just did.

“I’ll go use the restroom.” He said, rushing off to catch up with the other guys.

“And I thought girls were supposed to go to the restroom together.” Kaetlyn sighed.

“Yeah…” Sam spun her fork in her salad.

“Don’t tell me you need to leave, too!”

“Uh....”

The sound of terrified screams interrupted her. A green octopus-like ghost with red eyes growled and hissed as it flew around. It itself didn’t destroy anything, but the people frightened from it knocked things over or broke things.

“Oh no…” Sam mumbled as both girls tried sneaking away. The ghost flew in front of them, growling and hissing.

“Sam, what are you supposed to do when a ghost corners you?” Kaetlyn yelled over the screams and chaos, frightened. She tripped and fell trying to back away.

The Phantom boy came flying in, ramming into the ghost and they phased through the wall.

Sam was gone, so Kaetlyn ran into the girls restroom and transformed into Lune. She ran out to where she last saw the ghosts.

“Looks like my prey fell for the bait…” A man with metal skin and green flames for hair had Danny Phantom trapped in a glowing green net. Was this another ghost?

Phantom glanced at Lune, surprised. The metal ghost spotted her, too.

“Oh? What’s this?”

“Lune. I’m a superhero.”

“I’ve never heard of you. If anything, you’re some random kid in a costume.” The metal ghost said, his voice deep and intimidating.

Lune positioned herself to fight. “I’m a kid, yes, but at least I’m not some creep kidnapping people!”

“Why you…” The ghost growled. Lune ran and leapt up, kicking him in the jaw. He wasn’t affected by it.

“Heh, gonna have to do more than that, pup.” His forearm opened up, revealing a gun pointed straight at her. The sound of it charging up made Lune expect lasers.

Green lasers fired from the gun. “Yep!” She exclaimed, then ducked to dodge. “Nope!” She looked back at the wall behind her, which was fizzing from the laser. He fired his gun again. Lune ran back and forth, constantly dodging. 

There was no akuma or weak point, no anything! This was the undead she was fighting. The only way she knew how to beat someone like him was sucking him into the thermos Danny Phantom had.

“Hey, Phantom!” The wolf yipped while ducking, “Where’s that thermos thing you had?”

Still trapped in the net, Danny pulled it out from nowhere. Did he have special ghost pockets?

Lune jumped at the metal skinned ghost, but she phased right through and fell to the ground.

“Ghost can go intangible! You’d have to be a ghost yourself to physically fight him.”

“Would be nice to know ahead of time!” Lune growled, jumping up, then getting punched back down by the ghost.

“Huh?” The ghost looked at his forearm. A screen popped up. “Not again…” Jetpack wings popped out his back and flew him off somewhere, dropping Danny Phantom in the process.

Lune helped him out the net. “Hey, how am I able to touch you but not that other ghost?” She asked while grabbing his arm to help him up.

“Intangibility is more of something you can activate. It works differently in the ghost zone.”

“Ghost zone… What?”

“Long story.”

“I have way too many questions.”

“Same here. Like, how did you get here and how did you learn english so quickly?”

“Uh...well…” Her brain cells scrambled for excuses, “I’m here because I heard of an akuma got it’s way to America. I-I happened to stumble into Amity Park. It has to be around here somewhere…”

The ghost boy crossed his arms, his green eyes not interested in the story. He wore a black skin tight suit with white gloves, boots, and belt. He also had a white logo of the initials of his hero name.

“And what about that English thing? You have a perfect accent.”

“Well, we learn english in school.”

“And the accent?” This interrogating thing was getting annoying. So much for first impressions! Phantom boy over here obviously did not trust her one bit.

“Question for question; Who what the metal guy?”

“Really? Out of everything going on, you ask for information on a random ghost you failed to fight?”

“ _ Excuse me, I _ don’t know what’s going on here! All I know is that ghosts are real and so far you’re the only one that’s _ remotely  _ the good guy.”

“Remotely?” Danny Phantom echoed, “I  _ am  _ the good guy!”

“Danny! Where’s Skul-” Sam burst through the door, her brain stopping when seeing Lune, “-ker…?”

Tucker followed, sharing her blank expression.

“Sa...A random citizen!” Phantom stuttered. Lune raised an eyebrow in confusion.

“Don’t worry! The ghost is gone! So….I’ll go now.” The ghost boy flew off, his two feet turning into a tail.

Lune looked back at her friends, who only saw her as some strange person from France.

“Are you two okay?” She asked. The two teenagers nodded, their blank stare glued to their face.

“Don’t be alarmed. I just came to help. Since the danger is gone, I’ll be going now.” After a second or two of awkward silence, Lune ran off. She snuck into the bathrooms and transformed back.

Kaetlyn walked out, taking a deep breath in, then breathing out. “That was close…” She murmured to herself.

She saw Sam and Tucker walking back to the booth where Danny and Reid were already sitting. 

“So… The ghost disappeared and everything goes back to normal?” She asked her friends as she approached them.

“Pretty much? They come haunting in, then disappear. It’s not often. Even less often for the ghosts to actually attack people.” Sam explained.

Kaetlyn sighed, “Well, I guess that  _ is  _ somewhat safer than akumas.”

Everyone finished their meal, which luckily wasn’t ruined during the haunting, but the atmosphere was uncomfortable, like Kaetlyn didn’t know something her friends did. Had it been that long where they just grew out of sync? Hm.. maybe they just had a lot to catch up on?

 

Danny and Tucker hung out in Fenton’s bedroom. Danny paced back and forth with Tucker sitting on the side of the single bed.

“I don’t know. It’s just weird to me.” Fenton complained, trying to find the right words.

“Are you sure you’re not just overreacting? Some Parisian superhero drops by America to keep the purple moth thing from causing chaos. Honestly, I think you should just stick to the ghost hunting.” Tucker replied, snacking on a bag of chips.

“I just don’t trust her. Not to mention how useless she can be! She can’t even seem to fight!”

“In her defense, I think this is her first time fighting intangible flying beings.” Tucker smirked.

“Just who’s side are you on?!”

Just then, his phone started ringing. Danny answered.

Kaetlyn greeted, “Hey Danny! Just wondering if you could tell me anything about ghosts. Your parents are ghost hunters so I thought you might know something.”

Danny sighed.

“Oh, sorry. Am I interrupting something?” Kaetlyn leaned back against the wall. She was sitting on her mattress, notebook and pencil in hand.

“No… Just that ghost attack earlier today. It’s stressing me out.” Maybe he  _ should  _ take Reid’s suggestion and tell her about his powers? Making excuses to one of his closest friends was going to be tricky considering how much they hung out.

“Okay. That’s fine. I could just ask Tucker or Sam instead if your feeling that bad about it.”

“That actually sounds like a good idea. Call you back later.” Danny hung up. Tucker’s phone started to ring not long after. He answered and began answering all of Kaetlyn’s questions.

 

Okay! So ghosts appear randomly in the city. Yes, they do attack people, but it more of scares people and doesn’t go after specific targets. There’s that ghost boy, Danny Phantom, that will come to exterminate the ghosts, but sometimes Danny Fenton’s parents jump into the scene. 

Kaetlyn managed to get some answers on that metal ghost without revealing her alter ego. Apparently, the internet calls him Skulker. Tucker said he’s a tiny ghost wearing a decked out ecto skeleton. So that metal skin and gear is just some suit. Honestly, that guy isn’t as dangerous. His only target is Danny Phantom. He doesn’t attack people unless they get in the way somehow or you become his ‘prey’, which is unlikely unless you're the ghost boy.

Now the only big thing left to learn is how to fight these ghosts. To do that, she’d have to team up with Phantom. She’d have to find him first.

Looking out the window, Kaetlyn realized how long she spent on the phone. The stars were already out!

Kaetlyn ran out the door, shouting down the stairs, “Mom! Dad! I’m going to bed!”

“Goodnight!”

“Night!”

She closed the door, hid a jumble of clothes under her blanket, turned off the lights, and hopped out the window. She climbed to the roof and flipped her hood over her head. 

Lunna hovered by the girl’s shoulder.

“So where do you think we’d find that Phantom kid?”

“Kid?”

“Trust me, I’m older than anyone on this planet.” 

Kaetlyn rolled her eyes. She looked around. “If I were a ghost, where would I be?”

“That ghost zone place he mentioned?”

“Helpful…” The girl grumbled, “Almost as helpful as this stupid broken miraculous.” She held up her wrist, wearing a beige bracelet and four golden jewels. This little trinket was called a miraculous. It’s what gave her her powers to transform into Lune. There’s supposed to be five jewels, but it somehow got destroyed. Her suit use to look so cool… She had a weapon to go along with it, too.

Kaetlyn saw something white flying around in the distance, followed by green laser blast at something else flying around.

It  _ had  _ to be Danny Phantom.

“Moon, rise.” Kaetlyn whispered. She had her hood and hair protecting her face, so no one would know it’s her transforming into Lune. Amity was quiet during the night anyways.

The white wolf leapt roof to roof until she caught up to the scene. She saw a white ghost shaped like a giant snake being sucked into the thermos Phantom had.

She sat on the edge of the roof, waving at him, “Nice job! Mind teaching me how to fight ghosts, too?”

“First you threaten to suck me into the Fenton Thermos, now you want me to be your mentor?”

“Fenton Thermos?”

“Uh… Yeah! That ghost hunting family. I saw they threw it out. I took it and turns out it works.”

“I see…? Well,” Lune hopped down, “Sorry for almost capturing you in that thing. I’m new to town so I was a little spooked.”

“That’s what ghosts are supposed to do. Well, most. I’m just here to get rid of them.”

“And I want to help!”

“What about that akuma?” He raised an eyebrow, his arms crossed.

“Ehr…. I’m still looking for it. What if it attacks a ghost? Then we got an akumatized extraterrestrial roaming around Amity Park.”

“I guess… Wait, moths can do that?”

“Akuma moths specifically: Yes?” Honestly, Lune didn’t know. There were never anything but humans to akumatize. 

Danny thought on it, then sighed when he answered, “Okay, fine. You win. I’ll teach you how to fight ghosts.”

“Thank you.” Lune sighed in relief.

“I just hope you don’t plan on fighting me…” Danny Phantom grumbled under his breath.

“Huh?”

“Hm? I didn’t say anything!”

Lune just shrugged it off. “So, what’s first lesson?” She asked him.

“First you need to learn how ghosts work-”

“They can voluntarily go intangible, invisible. They live in some place called the ghost zone -wherever that is-  and they’re dangerous.”

“Okay… you know some things, but there’s still a lot to learn!”

They both heard the growls and garbles of another ghost in the distance.

“For now, just watch and learn.” Danny Phantom flew off, Lune following. At least he was kind enough to not phase through walls so she could keep up.


	3. Ghost Hunting 101

“Are you crazy, Danny?!” Sam exclaimed angrily. She sat at a table in the food court with Reid and Danny. They were in the mall. Tucker and Kaetlyn were in one of the stores, geeking out over movies.

“I’m sorry, okay? But what I’m supposed to do?”

“Say  _ ‘no’.  _ The other day you were paranoid of her. Now you’re helping her learn how to fight  _ ghosts _ ? What if she’s just trying to learn how to get rid of you?”

“I considered that…”

“Not long enough, apparently.”

Reid tried to find something to calm them down, or at least change the conversation before the whole mall could hear. “It sounds like Lune is here for business reasons. These ghost fighting lessons are probably for the reason she gave: just to prepare herself in case a ghost is akumatized.”

“Anyone realize she got here the same time as Kaetlyn?” Sam asked stubbornly.

The boys considered this.

“Maybe they took the same plane…?” Reid suggested unsurly.

“Well, none of that changes the fact that I now have a student to teach.”

“Does that mean we’ll have to be the substitutes?” Sam asked, done with the conversation that kept going.

“For now, no. I’ll just give her a basic 101 lesson and we’ll split ways.” Danny said, standing up from his seat.

“Just the basics?”

“Just the basics.”

 

________________________________________________________

 

“Fenton Spector Deflector, Fenton Phones, Fenton Grappler, Fenton Ghost Fisher, Fenton Foamer, Fenton Finder, Fenton Bazooka, and a spare Fenton Thermos.” Danny said in his ghost form to Lune. They were in an alleyway in a part of town that was deserted at night. Less likely of a chance to be seen.

Danny dropped all the devices on the pavement. None of them broke, thankfully. Lune crouched down and sifted through them. She picked up a small metal, beeping box. It had a green circular screen in the middle with a red light and a small antennae along with various buttons. A digital female voice statically informed her that a ghost stood in front of her.

“Which one is this?” Lune asked, holding it up. She didn’t catch all the names to these things.

“Fenton Finder. It detects where ghosts are.” He took a pair of green earpieces, “The Fenton Phones cancel out ‘ghost noise’ that could potentially affect you. They also help with basic communication.”

He handed the Fenton Phones to her. She put them in her ears after confirming that they were unused.

“The Fenton Specter Deflector repels and weakens any ghost that touches the person wearing it. Turn that on and neither me or any other ghost can hurt you.”

“What about being the good guy?” Lune teased, buckling the metal belt around her waist.

“ _ This  _ is the Fenton Foamer.” Danny held up a bazooka with a container on the back holding green foam, ignoring Lune, “Shoot it at a ghost and the foam will scare it off, keep it from coming at you. It also reverts any effects a ghost casts on a person.”

Lune held the gun. It was heavy, but manageable to use if she didn’t have to worry about running.

“These seem like they’re used for defense… What about actually fighting ghosts?”

“Even though I agreed to teach you, I still don’t fully trust you.” Danny crossed his arms.

“Why?”

“Maybe because you pointed a Fenton Thermos at me, then utterly failed at trying to defeat Skulker back at Nasty Burger.”

“I’m new to this ghost side of the world, okay? Not to mention I’m in a whole other country! Different culture, customs, slang I don’t understand.”

Danny grabbed a small gun and a fishing rod with glowing blue string. Lune followed as his legs turned into a tail and hovered off.

“Use the Fenton Finder and see if you can find a ghost that isn’t me.”

Lune did as she was told. She didn’t trust completely either, but the only wrong he did so far was nearly destroying cardboard boxes in her house. It technically would have been that box ghost’s fault anyways.

“It says there are two others on your second left.”

Picking up pace, they turned the second corner and saw two ghosts ruining the trash cans in the alleyway.

Lune gagged at the smell. 

“Watch and learn.” The ghost boy  said, taking out the gun and shooting it at the ghosts. One dodged while the other was caught by a green net. Danny took the fishing rod and cast it at the ghost that got away. It wrapped around it and kept it from flying away.

“Now, I’m a ghost, so I wouldn’t need these gadgets. I’m just showing you how to use them.”

“Thanks. Now can I learn how to use the rest of the weapons?” 

After gathering the two ghosts, Danny Phantom showed the wolf how to use the Fenton Thermos and properly capture them. He said the thermos didn’t dispose of the ghosts, only kept them inside. She’d have to give the thermos to Danny so he can bring them back to the Ghost Zone. She still needed to figure out what that was all about. 

“So, can I keep any of these?” Lune asked, sorting through the devices and weapons with Danny.

“Well… I could give you the Fenton Phones and Specter Deflector.” He replied unsurely.

“Good enough.” She took the two devices, “Did you steal from the Fenton Family, or did they make a deal with you or something?”

“Ah… Well… I more of… borrow what they don’t need?” He shrugged guiltily.

“Well, not like I can tell them.” Lune smiled, “Just as long as they don’t start coming after you.”

“Yeah. Now, I have to go fight some more ghosts with my friends. I’ll see you later.” Danny Phantom flew into the air.

“Friends? Are there other ghosts like you?”

The ghost boy flinched. He paused. “Bye!” then shot off.

“Hey! Get back here!” Lune called, but he didn’t listen. Sighing in disappointment, she took the ear pieces and belt, then headed home.

________________________________________________________

 

A ghost woman with green skin and short black hair paced the empty void. She’s been stuck inside the awful place for thousands of years, only the kwami she stole to talk to.

“You’re power might come back, Miss.” Lunna mumbled, her voice echoing in the dark void.

“In this place, it would take me a thousand millennia to regain  _ half  _ my strength, you stupid wolf. Thanks to being dead, I can’t use you or the miraculous to my advantage.” The woman spat, playing with her golden jewelry: The only thing to entertain her.

“But you’re able to create rips now. That’s progress!” Lunna’s voice shook with fear. Saying the wrong thing would mean trouble.

“I’ve  _ been  _ able to create rips! You useless-” She stopped herself and sighed. She had forgotten she kept Lunna in her miracle box for some time.

“I can create small rips enough for you to slip through, but if I create one for me, my energy will drain and I’ll become nothing. The Order of the Guardians tied me to this void.” The woman grumbled under her breath, “Even when I died, their magic still holds…”

Lunna waited so see if her master wanted to say anything more, then spoke, “With your permission, I’ll return to my miracle box for some rest.”

The woman waved her away.

Lunna flew back into the small, black, hexagonal box holding a white bracelet inside. 

When the woman made sure her kwami left, she held her hands up, glowing with a sandy yellow. A tear formed in the void. She slid her hands through and ripped it open. She had already begun to feel weak. When the rip became stable and large enough for her, she peeked outside to see strange buildings multiple stories high. It was cold, and the roads were a strange black substance instead of sand. She slipped through the rip. No one seemed to be around.

“There!” The voice of a boy shouted, “I found a ghost!”

She flew away, not wanting to simply return to the void, but not wanting to get caught by this strangely clothed young man either.

A girl and a ghost boy grouped up with the human boy and began chasing her. She’d need someone else to inform her on this strange world, but that meant Lunna would have to leave her side.

 


	4. Aquila

A girl with light brown skin and emerald eyes admired all the sparkling jewelry encased in their crystal clear glass boxes. She wanted a new bracelet, or maybe another necklace? She could get her ears pierced and wear the pretty crystal earrings.

“What do you think about this one, Xack?” The girl asked, pointing a necklace with a silver chain and small crystal.

A tall boy with black hair brushing over his brown eyes shoved his phone in his coat pocket to see what she wanted him to look at. “It looks nice. Simple yet beautiful.”

“Well look who's the artist.” The girl teased.

“Tch.”

“Oh come on, that tough guy act isn’t fooling me.”

“Arden, why don’t you just pick something and we can go?” He pulled out his phone again, scrolling through some article. Arden couldn’t quite tell.

“I’m just browsing. Moma and Dad say I can buy whatever I want after we move.” With their mother’s recent promotion, they could move into a bigger apartment they were already packing for. It wasn’t far from their original home, so Arden could still attend Collège Françoise Dupont.

“I hope there’s a budget.”

Arden giggled, “Of course! I’m not that spoiled.”

Xack smiled softly. 

“You know, I don’t mind buying one of these for Kaetlyn. You can give it to her and say you bought it yourself.”

He pulled his dark grey beanie over his eyes, his cheeks turning pink. Arden giggled again, calling him cute.

“Shut up.” He complained in embarrassment and walked right outside. He leaned against the wall, reading the latest news on his phone. He wore a dark green coat over a sea green shirt and baggy grey pants. 

Arden walked out a few minutes later with a small box in her hands, giving it to Xack. “You owe me.” She told him, waiting for him to open it and see the necklace inside

He sighed, “How am I even supposed to give it to her? She’s in another country.”

“I’m sure we’ll see her again. You can give it to her then.”

He shoved the box in one of his many pockets. He wouldn’t be able to give it to her even if he wanted to.

They strolled down the sidewalk, heading to the park. Arden spent most of the week packing while Xack has no one else but her to talk to, so they decided to spend the day and hang out together. 

They arrived; Beautiful green plants, a fountain with glistening water, and all kinds of people. Some were parents watching their kids, some were the parents’ kids playing games together. Others were friends like Xack and Arden, and a few were couples. Love seemed to be the theme of the day.

“Surprise pic~” Before Xack good react, Arden held her phone high enough to get both of them in the picture and clicked.

“Could you stop with those?” He begged.

“I take one every time we go somewhere. You should be expecting these by now.” She swung her legs back and forth. They sat on a bench under some trees.

“Delete it.”

“Not until a print it and hang on my wall.”

“Ardennnn!”

She giggled. She had countless pictures. Most were with Xack since she knew him longer, but plenty had Kaetlyn and Reid when they lived in Paris.

“Oh, look.” She swiped through previous photos, holding her phone up for him to see, “It looks like the first one we took together.”

Xack looked at the old photo, long before they met Kaetlyn. He had a pale forest green t-shirt over a long sleeved maroon shirt. He still couldn’t believe that him and Reid dressed alike when they first met.

“You didn’t delete that one either!” 

“Oops. Forgot.” Arden shrugged. Xack growled, embarrassed as he tugged on his beanie. He then went back on his phone, making sure there were no akuma attacks. He came across a video titled “Timetagger attacks at Louvre!” Keeping the volume muted, he watched the live video to see Ladybug and Chat Noir fighting what appeared to be an akuma.

“Mind if I head home early? My Dad’s almost home and is going to need help with the groceries.” Xack stood up from the bench.

“Yeah, go ahead. I’ll see you at school?”

“Yep.” Then he ran off. He took a taxi to the Louvre museum, sitting anxiously. He got this way before every akuma attack he decided to face.

 

________________________________________________________

 

A boy sat in the back of the class, his head on the desk with his textbook propped up to cover his face. He sat alone, sleeping the day away. He didn’t hear the bell ring, and his classmates didn’t bother waking him up.

The teacher came up, calling his name and shaking him. His head jerked up, terrified when he saw the teacher’s cross face glaring at him. He snatched his book and the strap of his satchel, bolting out the classroom. He came across a girl hiding behind the stairs, reading a library book. He didn’t realize he was staring until she looked at him and jumped in shock.

He apologized while she stayed silent, her eyes wide in fear. He knew why she felt scared. He was so tall and known as the gloomy loner. People stayed away from him because they thought he didn’t want them nearby. He just accepted that fact and went with it until now, where he was too flustered to care.

He tried convincing her he was friendly, sitting with her and starting a conversation, yet keeping his distance. The shy girl smiled, happy she could talk to someone. People didn’t like her because of her disheveled appearance. A classmate in her class named Chloe constantly picked at her for her cheap and ugly clothes.

The boy reassured her she looked fine, and they grew closer as friends from their. Both of them were each other’s first real friends, and they stayed that way. 

 

________________________________________________________

 

When the taxi arrived, he didn’t see the heroes outside, only the purple skinned akuma in a black outfit with colorful details. Xack hopped out of the car, paying the driver before they drove off.

The akuma used the gun he had in his hand to shoot at Xack. He rolled out of the way. A green portal opened up with the date 1340 on it. So the ‘Time’ in Timetagger hinted at his ability to send people through time.

“Missed me!” He shouted. Timetagger shot again, Xack dodging once more then running into the underground museum.

He pulled back his coat sleeves to reveal two golden cuffs on either arm. “Feathers Fly.” He whispered. A golden glow emitted from the bracelets and transformed his attire into a bronze suit with golden calf high boots and medal blades acting as feathers to the pair of artificial wings on his back. How they worked; He had no clue, but they did what he wanted them to do. He wore a silver mask with a golden nose resembling a bird beak. His hair changed slightly too, and he had a golden bow on his back. 

He guessed the cuffs were what the other heroes called miraculouses: magical trinkets that change the wearer into a superhero costume. The outfit came with a special weapon and ability. His was called Eyes of the Sun, which enhanced his sight tremendously.

Xack flew around the empty museum, searching for Ladybug and Chat Noir. He saw them come out of the restrooms. He planned on swooping in to offer any help, but he got knocked over by a shirt girl with pink hair. Alix, was it? He’s seen her at school before.

“Aquila!” Ladybug exclaimed when the heroes saw Xack, “It’s rare to see you in action.”

Aquila never really bothered with the superhero thing. Lune dragged him into it once, but he never willingly started working as a hero until recently. Even this, it was rare for him to do so.

“So the message was for real!” Alix exclaimed in excitement.

“Huh?”

She held out a pocket watch and explained, “This watch has been in my family since forever. It’s never chimed until today! And there was a message for you, Ladybug.”

The heroine took the watch and opened it, a small cloud of blue smoke forming a girl that stood on the watch. “Nice work, Minibug. You’re right on time. Now dig as deep as you can into the past and you’ll find the rabbit's burrow.” The woman spoke before vanishing.

“Convenient we’re in a museum.” Aquila commented.

After Chat made a lame joke, Ladybug asked for the oldest thing in the building. Alix took them to the egytian collection. The spotted hero started knocking on everything.

While Aquila let them do their thing, he examined some of the statues and hieroglyphics. It felt weird standing inside here. It seemed familiar, but not like he’s visited this section of the building before. It felt like he’s  _ been  _ here before… It’s… hard to explain… Maybe it had something to do with the strange feeling of being watched? That seemed stupid, though. Maybe it was just his imagination.

The sound of Chat Noir using Cataclysm and destroying one of the statues turned Aquila’s attention to the woman found inside. She seemed to be a young adult with short red hair and a blue and white costume resembling a rabbit.

She yawned, waking up. “Minibug! Kitty! I  _ knew  _ you’d solve my riddle.” She hopped down the podium. “A basic security measure in case the watch is stolen, but now, I need to do something very important.”

And by that, she meant heading to the girl’s restroom. Everyone waited outside as she explained herself.

With some time traveling term nonsense, they learned that her name was Bunnix and she came from ten years into the future. She got stuck in the statue from Chat Noir accidentally damaging her miraculous during the fight with Timetagger they were about to face. She came out, handing her miraculous to Ladybug and taking Alix’s watch, which happened to be the bunny miraculous in camouflage mode.

“Fluff, counterclockwise.” Bunnix transformed into her normal attire, a small bunny-like creature coming from nowhere. Aquila has never seen these things before. Were they the kwamis these heroes would mention from time to time? Why didn’t he have one?

The cat ran off to recharge his miraculous while the older Alix suggested to send Timetagger back to the future where he could be defeated by the older heroes who have more experience. It seemed simple enough.

“Fluff, clockwise!” And older Alix turned back into Bunnix. Chat came back and they ran upstairs to face the villain. When they got back to the surface, there was graffiti logos all painted in a grid. Bunnix called it a time web .

Timetagger appeared in front of them. “Give me your miraculous, don’t make me ask. It’s pretty clear you’re not up to the task! When I bring them to Hawk Moth’s door, Ladybug and Chat Noir will be no more.” He rapped to a rhythm. So he raps and he can travel through time… Okay…?

Bunnix warned them to stay back so the adults could fight. Great… Now they’re being treated like children. Even if they technically were, it still hurt. She took the young Alix and placed her beside an ice cream cart, trying to replicate her memories when defeating this guy.

Watching the adults, Chat Noir became anxious, wanting to fight. Aquila started fidgeting too. He didn’t know them well and it felt awkward casually standing beside them, so at least fighting could distract him from the fact.

Stubbornly, after Ladybug warned him not to, Chat activated his cataclysm and ran at Timetagger, hoping to get him from behind. He almost got Bunnix’s weapon, but she dodged at started scolding him.

Aquila saw Timetagger appear from behind. He swept in, tackling the villain before he could send anyone else back in time.

“Watch out, eaglet!” Bunnix warned. He jumped out of the  way and she created her time burrow, knocking him into whatever time she set it to.

“Eaglet… Wait, does that mean I’m still a hero in the future?” He asked her. She’s been calling everyone a kitty name because there were older versions of them in the future.

“Hm… nope.”

“Huh?”

“I’ve seen you as mini-me, but you disappeared after a big fight.” She explained.

“Wait, what fight? How am I involved?”

Timetagger reappeared, sending Bunnix to the ice age. She came back, punching him, only for him to dodge.

He kept sending her to different times, and she kept coming back. Eventually she ran out of energy, apologizing for her defeat.

Ladybug shook her head, not accepting defeat. “What if  _ today’s _ the day we grow up?” She activated her lucky charm, a notebook falling into her hands.

Timetagger laughed, “What're you gonna do with that? Sign a defeat treaty?” He pointed his gun at Bunnix, “Now give me your miraculous or I get rid of you friend by sending her back to the big bang!”

Angry, Aquila drew his bow and shot an arrow at the villain. He missed, but plucked one of his metal feathers and loaded the bow with it.

“I saw you give us whatever has your akuma before I shoot!” He threatened. These arrows simply phase into a person, only draining the energy of them. Nothing lethal, but this guy wouldn’t know that.

“Please, like you can defeat me? I travel through space and time, buddy! If Fluffy Tail couldn’t beat me, what makes you think you can?”

He shot at his feet as a warning shot. Timetagger only mocked him.

“Alright, you win…” Ladybug admitted defeat. Everyone froze in shock. “We’ll give you our miraculous. All I ask is that you give me a little bit of time to write a letter -to apologize- to my future self.”

“What? No. Think of something! You always think of  _ something!”  _ Chat begged her. Aquila still pointed his arrow at the villain, silently not knowing what to do.

Alix gave her a pen. She scribbled something on the paper.

“Time’s up! My moment of victory has arrived!” He held out his hand for their miraculouses.

Ladybug crumpled the paper, saying how it was pointless to even bother writing. She gave it to Bunnix and she returned to her own time.

On the heroine’s orders, Aquila lowered his bow and dropped his arrow. He stayed put while Ladybug and Chat Noir walked up to Timetagger.

Suddenly, Bunnix’s time burrow appeared beside the villain. Ladybug’s yoyo came out and wrapped around his hands. Chat Noir’s pole shot out, knocking Timtagger’s gun off his belt. The younger Ladybug caught it and threw it at the younger Chat, who turned it into dust with his cataclysm.

Timetagger transformed back into his civilian form. Bunnix came and took him back to their time.

“Miraculous Ladybug!” Ladybug tossed her lucky charm into the air and reverted everything to its state before the attack. Aquila flew off before anyone could say goodbye.

 

________________________________________________________

 

Hawk Moth growled in fury. Timetagger had said there would be a different Hawk Moth in the future.

“Now calm down.” A woman’s voice soothed. She rested he head in her hands, talking to him through a tear. 

“What is there to be calm about? Aquila helped Ladybug and Chat Noir, and I still don’t have their miraculouses!”

“Sometimes it takes patience. Take me for example. It took me over 5000 years to get this far, and I made it through planning and patience.” She spoke in a calm voice, grinning devilishly through every word.

“So what do you suggest we do…”

“Right now, I have my own kwami in America gathering information on Lune and that Phantom kid I mentioned before. Once we find their weaknesses and find out ghost boy’s secret identity, there will be nothing stopping you from your goals.” 

Hawk Moth didn’t catch the evil glint in her eye. “Nooroo, Dark wing fall.” He transformed in Gabreil Agreste: Adrien’s father.

“Other than me being tied to this void, we’re in similar situations.” The woman smirked, “We both have miraculouses and use them to fulfill our dreams, and we both need the Ladybug and Cat miraculous. If I had known of their powers when I snuck in to steal them, I would’ve gone for those instead of the blasted wolf miraculous.”

“Just remember our deal.” Gabriel reminded, his voice echoing in his hideout.

“Oh, of course. You’ll get your beloved back, then I can rule as queen once more, leaving Paris alone.” She reassured him when he gave her an untrusting look, “Don’t worry, I’ll have the rest of the world bow down to me. I can spare a single city. I won’t be  _ that  _ greedy…” 

She closed the tear, leaving Gabriel. Putting up that weak act around Lunna became annoying, but if that kwami knew her full power, she’d warn Lune about it.


	5. Fenton or Phantom

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I tried ^_^'

Lune ran down the streets, following Danny Phantom and a shapeless black ghost called Shadow. She wore he earphones and specter deflector and had the grappler on her back. On occasions, he’d lend her some extra gadgets that could help catching the ghost they fought.

When Shadow turned the corner, Danny became intangible and flew through the building to cut it off. Lune leapt onto the roof and stopped three buildings down where she saw Phantom and Shadow duking it out. She recently learned that Danny Phantom had what he trademarked it as a ghost ray. It was ectoplasmic beams he could shoot from his palms.He used a few of them to fight Shadow.

The shapeless ghost slipped into the shadows and tried sneaking off by flying above Phantom where he couldn’t see. Lune noticed it, though, and took the grappler off her back, shooting a glowing green net at it.

“Nice job.” Danny Phantom praised.

“Thanks, but weren’t there two other ghosts with it?” Lune asked while the ghost boy used the thermos on Shadow.

“My friends should be hunting for them.”

Lune leapt down to the street, returning the grappler. “Still not gonna tell me about them? Hope I get to meet them one day.” She’s agreed to herself that it would be best not to push the subject too far, but her curiosity wouldn’t stop her from asking a couple questions.

“Maybe, but thank you for helping.”

She smiled, “No problem! I’ll keep an eye out for the other two, just in case.”

Phantom nodded, flying off with the grappler and thermos. 

Lune hurried home, silently sneaking in through her bedroom window. “Moon, set.” A white flash appeared, Kaetlyn appearing where Lune once stood. Lunna hurried to get some jerky. Her parents would be asleep by now, so Kaetlyn didn’t mind.

She heard her phone buzz and checked it. Arden texted her good morning, but it was 1 am here in America. She texted good morning anyways and talked for a few minutes before going to sleep.

“Kaetlyn, I saw a ghost outside!” Lunna exclaimed. With a tired sigh, “Moon, rise.” Lune hurried to help.

________________________________________________________

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Reid asked. They sat at Tucker’s dining table. His father at work and his mother making snacks.

“Didn’t sleep much, that’s all.” Kaetlyn yawned, her head on the table.

“You know what wakes me up in the morning?” Tucker asked, “Getting more loot!” 

“I’m not spending $50 on a stupid computer game” The tired girl said. Yes, both of them can be geeks, but Tucker was on a different level. Kaetlyn liked movies and a few computer games, but Tucker was obsessed with anything tech. Games, shows, movies, consoles, the latest phone models; A bunch of nonsense his friends didn’t always understand.

“Come on, if you just try it-”

“I said no.”

Reid teased, “Looks like you’re even uncool with the uncool.”

“Well, I don’t see what’s wrong with it.”

“It’s an overpriced game with 8-bit graphics.”

“It’s fun though!”

The other two laugh. Kaetlyn said, “You stick to games, and I’ll stick to TV, deal?”

Tucker crossed his arms, sinking in his chair. His mother came out with a tray of meat and cheeses. Kaetlyn got some France vibes from it, but the Foley’s likes their meat, and what went better with meat than some good cheese?

They had fun chatting, Kaetlyn interrupting with a yawn frequently, but still fun. When Reid started talking, she noticed something zip by the windows of the front of the house. It looked like a man and woman on a motorcycle. She came with an excuse to leave early and rushed off. She flipped her hood over her head and transformed into Lune.

Danny Phantom wasn’t too far behind the motorcycling ghosts. “I don’t get it, we caught them last night!” He exclaimed in confusion.

“How often will a ghost find its way back to the human world?”

“A few days at the least. The ghost zone is big so it takes a while to get back to the portal.”

“You still need to explain the whole ghost zone thing.”

“After we catch these guys.” He tossed her the thermos, she caught it.

The guy driving the motorcycle stopped. He wore black clothing and had long blonde hair. “I knew the rumors were true! So you  _ do  _ have a new partner.” He spoke, “Shadow!” The shapeless ghost from the night before flew at her. She didn’t have her belt so she had to roll out of the way instead.

“Johnny, this is boring. I want to get some new clothes.” The woman sitting behind the blonde ghost said. She had green hair and a red leather jacket and skirt.

“Get back here!” Danny yelled as they drove off.

“I got them. You deal with shadow!” Lune ordered as she chased them. She had trouble keeping up with them, but all she had to do was aim the thermos at them and fire.

Johnny kept changing directions, phasing through buildings and vehicles they ran into. He laughed, this was fun!

“Could you stop joking around? I don’t want to be stuck in that cramped thermos again.” Kitty, the woman he rode with, asked in annoyance.

“Alright, alright.”

They sped off, Lune losing ground between them. She was too slow. Why didn’t she let the flying ghost boy to go after them?!

“Dang it…” She murmured, trying to catch her breath. They were too far ahead for her to do anything. She dipped into an alleyway and transformed back into Kaetlyn. She walked out with her hood still over her head.

“Kaetlyn?” Sam asked. The girl jumped in fear and spun around, hiding the thermos behind her back.

“Uh… yeah what is it?”

“I thought you were at Tucker’s place.”

“Well, I needed to head home and thought I’d stop by.” She smiled nervously.

“Stop by? This is the store where I buy my makeup.” Sam gestured towards the name of the building above the doorway.

“Uh… Yep! I actually wanted to buy you some lipstick. I saw a pretty shade of purple in the window.”

“Not like you, but whatever.” Sam shrugged, “Wanna browse and get that new shade for me?”

“That’d be nice, but I realized I forgot to bring money, so I’m heading home to get some. See ya!” Kaetlyn sped walked the other way, making sure her friend couldn’t see the thermos. She sighed in relief.

Arriving back home, Kaetlyn walked up to her room and decided to hide the thermos where she kept her other gadgets.

“Why don’t you take a nap? Then we can go and catch those ghosts.” Lunna suggested.

“That’d be nice.” But the doorbell rang. “Ugh….” Kaetlyn checked the door. Reid stood outside. She opened the door. “Aren’t you supposed to be with Tucker?”

“Eh, yeah, but I thought I’d check on you.” He couldn't tell her that Danny needed help ghost hunting and he wanted to make sure she was safe.

“Thanks, but I’m really tired right now.”

“O-Okay. Just wanted to make sure everyone was okay. I’ll see you tomorrow?”

Kaetlyn yawned, “Yeah sure. Maybe we can ask Sam to use her bowling alley.” 

“Maybe. That’d be fun.” Reid smiled.

Sam had rich parents, and luckily, she wasn’t one of those cliche rich kid snobs. Kaetlyn liked the fact that she knew of her wealth before the guys, just for being able to know something they didn’t. Sam refrained from telling anyone so they wouldn’t like her for her money, but the group discovered it anyways.

The two waved goodbye as Kaetlyn closed the door to take a nap. Once the door closed, Reid spun around, biting his knuckle. Why couldn’t he just ask her out? They hung out all the time! The only difference would be that it would be called a date. They were back in America, no reason to worry about Xack. Ugh… He got a text from Tucker about Johnny and Kitty and hurried back.

Kaetlyn collapsed on the bed, but it would take her a while to sleep. Back in France, she’s been so busy with akuma attacks and school to really bother with anything else. Arden teased her about relationships, but she never took it seriously. Now back in Amity Park with Reid… “Rrrrgh!”

“Something wrong?” Lunna asked.

“Shut up! Leave me be!” She hid under the covers and tried to fall asleep. Emotions were not her strong suit.

Lunna sighed. Humans were weird. She wasn’t tired, but there was nothing to do, either. Maybe she could learn to use the remote control to watch some TV? Or mayyyybe… she could eat some more jerky. She flew downstairs and phased through the refrigerator, coming out with a stick of beef jerky. While munching, her ears caught something. Ghosts? It came from a few blocks away. Would she risk it?

She phased outside, constantly glancing to make sure there were no humans who could see her. She did her best to keep hidden as she floated down the street. She saw a motorcycle coming and dipped into an alleyway. A beam of light shot from behind the ghosts on the motorcycle and pulled them back. The Fenton Thermos?

Lunna peeked her head around the corner to see Reid and Tucker with Danny Phantom. Did they know each other?

“Lune said she had it. Did she lose them?” Tucker asked.

“I don’t know, honestly.” A white circle appeared around Danny Phantom’s waist, splitting into two as they traveled across his body and changing his clothes. He turned into a boy with black hair and blue eyes. Danny Phantom was Danny Fenton?! And Reid and Tucker knew about this! Did Sam know, too?

Lunna dashed back home. She needed to tell Kaetlyn! She sipped up the stairs and bounced on Kaetlyn, trying to wake her up. “Kaetlyn! Kaetlyn!” How had they not figured this out before?

“Leave me alone…” The girl complained, pulling the blanket over her head.

“But it’s important! It’s about-” Lunna suddenly thought about this? How would the mistress react?

“About what…?”

She’d have to tell her first, right? She’d get mad if she didn’t…

“Lunna?”

“Hm?”

“What’s so important that you have to wake me up?”

“Eh… nothing. Nevermind…” This would keep Kaetlyn safe, right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> art by me!


	6. An Akuma in America

**“** Hawk Moth,” The ghost woman addressed him, “that boy I mentioned in America… I think it’s time to cause some chaos.”

Hawk Moth held out his hand, a white butterfly fluttering onto his palm. He cupped his other hand over it and turned it into a purple moth. The woman let it flutter through the tear she created, then opened another for it to arrive in Amity Park.

“Let’s see how that ghost hunting boy and fake wolf can handle an akuma attack without their precious Ladybug.”

 

________________________________________________________

 

Kaetlyn sat on her chair, on a video call with Sam. Could they just hang out in person somewhere? Maybe, but they didn’t feel like leaving the house. It’s been exhausting ghost hunting, for both of them, but they couldn’t tell each other that. How would the other react knowing they work with Danny Phantom to catch ghosts?

They talked about random things, whatever normal people talked about. What  _ do  _ they talk about? I’m not sure myself. I just added this paragraph just to lengthen the chapter a bit. Hm… their favorite shows? Games? That sounds like geek stiff, though… Normal girls talk about makeup and drama, right? Aren’t those just stereotypes? Eh- Ack! I’m getting too meta! Back to the story!!!!

Looking at the computer screen, Kaetlyn saw something purple fluttering in one of Sam’s bedroom windows. Akumas wouldn’t be able to make it to America, right…?  

“Kaetlyn.” No response. “Kaetlyn?” Sam echoed again.

The girl came back to. Anxiety got to her. She had to make sure ghosts were the only problem in this town.

“Sorry, Sam, but I just remembered my parents wanted me to clean the house while they were at work. I’ll call you back when I finish.”

“Oh. okay the-”

Kaetlyn powered off her computer and jumped out her window, turning into Lune in the process. The traveled roof-by-roof to Sam’s house, making sure to stay out sight as best as possible. She searched the area. No akuma in sight. Maybe it was just her imagination?

A girl with long black hair and teal eyes sat inside a cafe. She had just posted a picture of herself enjoying a muffin and scrolled through the comments from her many social media followers. (Because everyone knows social media is the happiest place on the internet) What didn’t please her was what some random person commented on her post. They hated her? But she was Paulina Sanchez:The prettiest girl in Casper High School! Who wouldn't love her?

A purple moth finally found some negative emotions. It fluttered into the cafe and phased into the girl’s phone. A purple outline appeared over her eyes, but the man’s voice spoke in a different language.

“Let me try.” The woman offered. She created a tear to be right next to Hawk Moth, the previous one disappearing.

“Krahia, I’m am the voice for Hawk Moth. These people hate you? Well, get them to hate someone else. You won’t be insulted if they’re busy insulting others.”

“How do I do that?” Paulina asked.

“I’ll give you powers, but in return, I want you to defeat a certain ghost boy. Know who I’m talking about?”

Paulina had some feelings for Danny Phantom -not knowing he’s Danny Fenton- but Hawk Moth’s control has gotten the better of her. “I’ll make sure Danny Phantom is no more.”

The woman smirked, “Perfect.” The outline disappeared and Paulina transformed into Krahia. She rushed off to cause chaos and seek out the ghost boy.

“I hope this works.” Hawk Moth stated.

“It will. There may be some errors, though. Your previous minions have never been successful.”

“So what makes you think this will be any different?” He growled, spinning around. The woman traveled backwards through tears in the void..

“I was alive before the time, but I managed to learn English along with many other languages. The difference is that they’re under my influence, not yours.”

Hawk Moth scowled in response, watching Krahia.

 

Lune heard angry yelling in the distance. She followed the noise to see a horde of angry people crowding around a cafe. Lune jumped in, trying to figure out what happened, but she just got pushed and shoved by the people she tried questioning. Don’t get caught in an angry group of people…

Lune shoved through them, trying to enter the cafe. One of the employees noticed her getting smushed against the window and helped her inside. The wolf thanked them.

“You’re just lucky some of us know about you Parisian superheroes.”

“Guess I am lucky, huh? But what happened here?”

“Everything was fine until a girl started yelling at us. She took a picture on her phone and everyone else started attacking the place.”

“A simple picture?”

The employee took out their phone and showed Lune. It was a post by Paulina Sanchez on social media, complaining about how bad the cafe was. The wolf suddenly didn’t like the place. The employee made her angry, and just being in the cafe set her on edge.

“I’ll see what I can do.” Lune stood up, taking the back exit  out of the building. She hated the place, but she had to worry about Paulina. She stopped on top of a roof, trying to think her way through this.

She talked to Sam, thought she saw an akuma and came to check. Next thing she knew, a horde of people all of a sudden are furious at some random cafe. She didn’t think much of the place and investigated. It wasn’t until she saw Paulina’s post that made her despise that building. Thinking about it makes her furious, irritated… Why?

“Moon, set. I need some help, Lunna.” She crouched down, her hood over her head.

“Are you okay?”

“I’ve been under an akuma’s power before. Heck, I’ve  _ been  _ one of Hawk Moth’s villains. Do you think that’s what’s going on?”

“You mean that social media post? I don’t have any effect by it.”

“You’re a magical kwami, who knows what you’re capable of. You have no idea how much strength it took me to keep from turning into one of those angry customers at the door. Even imagining the employee in front of me made makes me mad, but it wasn’t until I saw the post.”

Just then, her phone notified her of a new post from Paulina. How’d she even fine her account? Kaetlyn doesn’t post much. Arden just got her an account so they could follow each other.

“Give me that.” Lunna snatched the phone, reading it, “She posted a picture of some random people at the park. The photos seem normal.” 

“Taking that back.” Kaetlyn checked the post. She’s never met these people before, but something about them irritated her. She gasped, “That’s it! Maybe I’m not crazy after all!” She jumped to her feet. Lunna fly to be at eye level.

“Are you sure?”

“I’m not crazy! Maybe there’s actually an akuma that somehow got here. Paulina is Amity Park’s Chloe. She’s bound to get others akumatized, and maybe herself a few times.”

“Does that mean she’ll get a miraculous like Chloe?”

“Funny…” Kaetlyn gritted her teeth.

“Let’s go. Moon, rise!” A flash of white light and Lune darted to the park. She didn’t see anyone but the people on her post trying to hide from another horde of people. The wolf hated them, but she knew that was only Paulina’s work, so she dipped down and took a trio someplace safe. 

“You three just make sure to stay out of sight of people. I’ll try and stop whatever’s causing this” Lune rushed off. How was she going to find Paulina without checking her social media page? It took a lot to keep from acting like the rest who see her post. 

She saw something black and white fly by her. Danny Phantom? She called out to the ghost. He stopped and flew to her.

“Lune, do you have any idea what’s going on?”

“I think it’s an akuma, not a ghost. You’ll have to learn from me, this time.”

Danny smirked. “Fine then.” He followed her as she explained what she knew and what she thought. Lune also tried brainstorming how they would find Paulina.

Danny’s phone buzzed. Did he have pockets in his suit? The ghost pulled it out. “A notification from Paulina? Why not just-”

“Don’t look at it!” She immediately changed directions to snatch his phone. “If you look at her post, you hate whoever or whatever it’s about. Learned that the hard way. Unless you want to fight the urge to attack the person in the post more than fighting the villain, we can’t check her page.”

“Then how do we find her?”

“Hm…” Lune remember her ability. With her downgraded costume, she forgot she could use it. “Can you fly me up?”

“Huh?”

Danny Phantom carried Lune into the sky until she told him to stop.

“Okay…” Lune felt energy surge to her throat, threatening to escape. She took a deep breath in and, “Midnight Howl!” A deafening wolf’s howl escaped her throat and shot down on the town. They were just high enough to where even those in direct line of her howl wouldn’t go deaf.

Lune closed her eyes and waited for the sound to bounce back. A picture of the town painted in her mind. The buildings, the trees, some people too, though they were weak. Lune saw a giant cluster of people at the movie theatre. The ghost boy flew them that way and caught a strange girl still in the area.

She had long white hair and wore a skin tight rose coloured suit that loosened into a dress. It had white designs that matched her ankle boots and leggings.

“Paulina!” Lune shouted. The girl reacted to the name, but it didn’t look like her.

“It’s Krahia! You’d know that if you looked at my page.”

“Oh trust me, I have, but I found it rather bland. You just complain.”

Krahia scowled. She took out her phone and snapped a picture. Both heroes covered their faces, peeking through their fingers to see the akuma running off.

“She’s getting away!” Lune chased Krahia, Danny shortly behind. Krahia took pictures of anyone and everyone, trying to get the heroes chasing her. Danny could turn invisible whenever he wanted, but Lune would have to be careful.

“How do akumas work?” Danny Phantom asked. She couldn’t see him.

“There’s a moth that possesses people with negative emotions. If we find where it is, we can stop Krahia.”

“Where would the moth be hiding?”

Lune examined the villain her clothes. They didn’t have anything screaming “The akuma’s hiding here!” so it must be her phone.

The wolf skidded to a stop. Danny Phantom turned visible and came back to her. Lune hushed him as she watched Krahia run off.

“We’ll keep our distance. I’ll explain more.” Lune snuck around, following Krahia and making sure to keep distance. They followed her until they reached the mall. The heroes walked in, too many people yelling at each other and at shops to worry about anything else.

“We’ll find her then corner her. You can turn invisible, so you come in from behind to steal her phone. I’ll be the bait.” The wolf explained.

“Sounds like a plan.”

Lune nodded. Danny Phantom turned invisible, grabbing the wolf’s arm, which turned her invisible as well. So that’s another one of his abilities? He can turn whoever he touches intangible and invisible?

“Found her.” Danny whispered, popping his head through the wall of one of the jewelry shops. 

“Even as a villain, she can’t help it when it comes to shiny objects…” Lune mumbled.

“What was that?”

“I didn’t say anything.” She replied a little too quickly. The ghost boy shrugged it off and let go of her arm, making her visible again.

“You sneak behind her and wait until she’s distracted.” 

He flew through the wall, leaving the rest up to the wolf. She walked out the door and entered the shop. She saw Krahia  admiring some diamond jewelry.

“Hey, Paulina!” She called her name.

“It’s Krahia!” She spun around and corrected the hero. “Stupid wolf.” She held up her phone.

“Sorry, but you haven’t paid for the phone bill yet. We’ll have to take that away from you.”

Krahia looked confused until Danny turned visible and tried snatching her phone. They were in a game of tug-of-war over it. Lune thought she might help by tackling Krahia. They fell to the ground and all three were trying to take the phone.

The camera flashed and Lune looked away from the light. Krahia kicked her off and ran, Danny Phantom chasing her.

Lune got up and ran outside, only to be met by and angry mob. She slammed the door and leaned against it to keep the people from getting in.

“What am I supposed to do now?!” She tried thinking through the banging of the door. Now everyone would hate Lune!

But…

Lune took a deep breath before dashing off, dipping behind the cash register. The mob came flooding in, searching for the wolf. They took no notice to the young teenage girl sneaking out the store, her hood over her head as an extra safety precaution.

Kaetlyn sighed in relief. They hated whoever’s face ended up on Krahia’s social media account, but this girl had two faces. She was just thankful her hypothesis was proven to be true. 

“We’ll have to continue as just a girl, I guess.” She sighed, a little disappointed.

“And a powerful kwami!” Lunna added, which made her miraculous holder smile.

Kaetlyn took the escalator downstairs where she saw Danny and Krahia run off to. She ducked down when the ghost’s green ghost ray came flying through one of the windows of a store.

“I found them.” Lunna commented.

“Oh, really? Thanks.” Kaetlyn replied sarcastically. She tried to stay invisible while sneaking into the store. Okay, how would she do this? She had to get Krahia’s phone and break it without giving away any hints that she’s Lune.

She looked around the room from her hiding spot, it seemed to be an expensive clothing store. She took a shirt that fell on the floor from one of the shelves. Hm…

While the ghost boy and akuma fought, Kaetlyn took as mainly articles of clothing as possible and tied them together. She already came up with an excuse for helping rather than Lune, so all she had to do was set her plan into motion.

Krahia took pictures, Danny Phantom turning invisible. She raged and threw a mannequin in his direction. Kaetlyn heard a thud on the wall behind her, but the mannequin his a clothing rack. 

She saw Danny appear in front of her. She motioned for him to keep quiet and showed the rope of clothes she made. Wanting to get this fight over and done with, he simply went with it. They each took the other end of the rope and waited for Krahia to approach them. When she stood directly in front of them, both teenagers charged at her, running around the villain until she couldn’t move.

“Nice job, ghost boy.” Kaetlyn held her hand up for a high five.

“Same to you, but what’re you doing here, Kae-... Kid?”

_ Kid? Weird since he looks the same age as me.  _ “I was just casually shopping before a giant mob started attacking the store next door. I was going to just run home, but I saw you fighting this villain.”

“Do you know where Lune is?”

“I saw her trapped in a jewelry store, but no worries. I lived in france for a while so I know how these akumas work.” Kaetlyn took the phone by Krahia’s feet and stomped on it. A purple moth flying out. Ack! She forgot! Only Ladybug could de-evilize akumas!

Before Kaetlyn could think of what to do, the ghost boy used his thermos to suck up the moth. 

“.... Huh?”

“Thanks for helping. I should probably check on Lune.”

“Ah- Wait!” But he flew off before she could say anything else. “Dang it…”

A few seconds of silence followed before Lunna popped her head out of the girl’s hood. “Uhm… Didn’t he say he would check on Lune?”

“Oh no!” Kaetlyn transformed into Lune, then the white wolf bursted out the doors to make yet another excuse to the ghost boy. What she didn’t realize, however, was that Paulina had turned back into her civilian form, and saw the girl transform. Thank goodness her back was turned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Krahia sounds like an interesting word. Where did that ghost woman get it from?


	7. Fillers? Those Totally Don't Exist

The woman growled after Krahia had been defeated. Hawk Moth’s remark on the fact made her more angry. She closed the tears and rested in the void. She needed to get all the heroes together and defeat them all at once. If she could just replicate what Scarlet Moth had done, she would be able to pull it off.

“Hm…” First, she needed to find a way to stay out of the void without risking her afterlife. She gasped at an idea to suddenly pop in her head. She created a small tear just big enough for her to see through. The tear hid in a place where Parisian citizens were least likely to see her. Now to find the right person.

 

________________________________________________________

 

Kaetlyn stared at the thermos. Danny Phantom had given it to Lune to watch after since he didn’t know how to handle Akumas. She still has a hard time believing Akumas can be kept in some metal thermos, when they’re like kwamis and can phase through any solid thing. It could hold a ghost though… what would keep it from holding an akuma?

For now, she hid the thermos with her other gadgets and made her way to Danny’s house. They planned on playing video games with Tucker.

Halfway to Danny’s when she got a phone call from Sam. She answered it. “Hey.”

“Kaetlyn! Do you know about Lune?”

She almost choked on air, surprisingly. “Uh.. Wha-wh-what?”

“You don’t check the news? During that akuma attack yesterday, some people saw Lune and Danny Phantom fighting the villain. She had a weird name.. Krahia?”

She’s been ghost hunting after hours with Danny, she never thought people with discover she lived in America now. “Whaaaaat? Really? No way! That’s cool.”

“Totally believable.” Lunna whispered sarcastically from her hood. Kaetlyn shushed her.

“They even have a picture of her. I’ll text you.” 

Kaetlyn’s phone dinged. She checked her messages to see a screenshot of Danny handing Lune the thermos.

She exhaled, trying to take this all in while Sam spoke, “Paulina was there too. She happened to be the villain. The cops almost arrested her if it wasn’t for Danny Phantom to be there and explain everything. The press asked her a bunch of questions and she says she saw Lune in her civilian form.

Kaetlyn choked on air again. Oh no…

“No one knows her identity, though. Paulina said she only saw the back of her head. Brown hair was all.”

That calmed her down a bit, “W-well, looks like that’s just another mystery in Amity. First Invis-o-Bill, now Lune. Heheh…”

“That’s all I wanted to say. Talk to you later?”

“Oh, yeah. We need to beat our highscore. There’s a third players who’s really close to beating us.”

They said goodbye and hung up. Kaetlyn would have to be more careful if she was going to have Lune fight crime here. She still needed to figure out how that Akuma got here, and how she was going to de-akumatize it. Maybe mail it to Ladybug? But she didn’t know her address. Hawk Moth wouldn’t be able to akumatize anyone else, though. So maybe this’ll be the last akuma attack. Yeah! She could just keep the moth in the thermos! Then no more Hawk Moth and no more villains!

Happy at least with that fact, Kaetlyn knocked on the door and waited for Danny’s mother to answer the door. She had purple eyes and short auburn hair. She let the girl in and went into the basement to help her husband with whatever ghost gadgets they were going to make next.

Tucker already had chips and soda out while Danny set up the game. 

“Ready to lose, Shelle?” Tucker teased, but kinda not. Kaetlyn was only good at a few games.

“I can’t lose if I don’t play,  _ Foley.”  _

“So why are you here?”

“To watch. I’ve rewatched my favorite movies already.” Another lie. She’s been busy with ghosts and the recent akuma attack. She’s only been able to watch a few movies. She approached the coffee table and reached for a bag of chips.

“Ah ah! These are for player’s only!” Tucker snatched the chips, protecting them as if it was his child. 

“But I want foooood!”

“This is a very valuable source of energy! How are you supposed to keep your energy up without it?!”

“By mashing buttons…?”

“It’s a guy thing, you wouldn’t understand.” Danny added as he inserted the disc into the console.

“How about when me and Sam spend hours trying to maintain as the top two on the leaderboard! Huh?!” The two boys made a defeated face. She had a point there...

Finally, Danny set up the game and Tucker and him started playing. Kaetlyn watched, sneaking a few chips while the boys weren’t looking. She checked her phone a few times for any extra info on what information the press might have gotten from the akuma attack.

“Haha! I win!” Tucked jumped up in victory. Danny lowered his head in defeat.

“I demand a rematch!”

“Sure, bro, but I doubt you’ll ever beat me.”

Kaetlyn intervened, sipping her can of soda, “Why don’t I play against you, Danny?”

“A fake confidence boost? No way. You’re too easy to beat.” He replied unenthusiastically. Kaetlyn growled, tightening her grip on her can.

“Where’d you get that anyways? That’s for gamers only!” Tucker exclaimed.

“There was an unopened one on the table. I was thirsty.” She sipped some more while heading to the front door.

“You can’t do that!”

“I can and I did.” Kaetlyn closed the door behind her and walked back home. She texted Sam so they would be able to raise their highscore. When she approached her house, she saw Reid at the front door. 

“Hey.” She said. The boy stepped out of her way so she could unlock the door. It was too early for her parents to get home from work..

“Kaetlyn, hi. Just wanted to stop by. I got bored…”

She walked inside, leaving the door open for her friend. She could feel the soft, yet slightly quick, beating of her heart. “You should’ve went to Danny’s. Tucker and him are playing video games.”

“Maybe if I got invited…” 

Kaetlyn laughed in response, “I only went because it happened to come up in a conversation.” She threw the empty soda can at Reid. It bounced in his hands before he finally caught it.

When she burst out laughing, he threw the can right back at her. 

“Ack!” She turned away, blocking with her hands.

“I’m in basketball, idiot!”

“What does that have to do with anything?!”

“I can shoot hoops! I can throw an empty soda can!”

“You’re bad at catching, though.” Kaetlyn stuck her tongue out to taunt him. Reid chased after her, and she ran. He picked up the can and spun around and threw it at her as she ran upstairs. She giggled maniacally when it barely missed her. Reid sighed.

“I’m stealing some food!” He announced to her as he opened the fridge.

“Make yourself a sandwich or something!” She called back. Lunna flew over to Kaetlyn’s computer and turned it on for her, just because she felt like it. The girl gave her kwami some jerky as a thank you.

“You’re mom and dad are okay with a boy in the house?” The wolf asked.

“If it’s Reid, Danny, or Tucker, yeah. I just need to let them know when they’re not home. Speaking of which…” Kaetlyn got her phone and texted her parents, informing them on Reid’s presence inside.

“I guess you’re all pretty close, then.”

“Duh. I grew up with all of them. I didn’t talk to Reid much until me and Sam ended up in a group project with him, though.” Kaetlyn got up from her bed and set up her game. She played for a bit while she waited for Sam to log on.

Reid walked upstairs, knocking on the wall beside Kaetlyn’s doorway. He walked in when she gave him the okay to -When Lunna found a place to hide. He sat on the side of the bed, watching her play.

“I don’t get it. How can you be so good?” He asked.

“I play  _ a lot.”  _ She replied bluntly.

“But, like, I’m horrible.”

“You’re too busy with sports.” Kaetlyn said as she casually shot down a random player. With the goth, techno geek, weirdo, loser, and athlete, Reid was the athlete. -I bet you can guess the others- He loved basketball, but his friends didn’t.

“Let’s see you win a match against my sister.”

“If I had a soda can, I would throw it at you.” Just then, the soda can from before his her temple. She spun around in her chair to see Reid dashing out into the hallway. She jumped out and took the can, chasing him. She stopped at the top of the stairs when she saw him at the door.

“Next time, pick up after yourself!” He yelled teasingly before slamming the door.

Kaetlyn chucked the can at it anyways, bouncing off the edge as soon as her father walked in. The man didn’t seem to notice the clunk from the tin on the wooden end table.

“Reid was just outside.” Her dad stated casually. Kaetlyn was too busy imagining what would happened if the can hit him to bother with a response.

“Kaetlyn, you okay?”

“Huh?” She shook the thought out of her head, “Oh yeah.. Uh… He had to hurry home.” She hopped down the stairs and -trying to play it cool- nonchalantly picked up the can, then throwing it in the trash can in the kitchen.

_ That idiot…  _ Kaetlyn didn’t realize that her cheeks turned pink. She rubbed her temple where the can had hit her earlier.


	8. Funhouse in A Funhouse

While the Shires’ house was fast asleep, a tear appeared in the child of the family’s drawer. A green hand reached through the tear, taking the thermos on the other side. The woman connected to the hand opened the thermos, watching a purple moth flutter out and fly through a second tear into the streets of Paris. The woman closed the thermos and placed it back where she left it.

 

________________________________________________________

 

Danny stumbled into the bathroom to brush his teeth. With summer almost over, he’s been waking up later in the day to make up for the hours of sleep he would lose to get ready for school. Not really how logic works, but okay.

He stared at his tried reflection. He would’ve slept longer if Jazz hadn’t woken him up. Maybe it was just him, but something felt off about his reflection. He continued to stare into the mirror…

Danny yawned, walking downstairs to eat breakfast… more of lunch. He’s too 

tired to deal with anythi-

_ BAM! _

The boy jumped. Jazz came to the kitchen from the basement where he heard the explosion. Her face and orange hair was covered and smoke and soot.

Danny just stared at her, unphased with anything as he took a spoonful of cereal.

“Not. A word.” She said before stomping upstairs to cleanup.

“I didn’t say anything.” He mumbled. He knew his parents were in the basement, trying to build another ghost hunting gadget that would give away he was part ghost. To avoid that for the day, Danny went back up to his room and played games on his computer for a bit, just to enjoy being in his pajamas for a while longer. 

After a while, he got dressed and headed to the park where he was supposed to meet his friends for the fair. His family came along, too. His dad kept talking about the ghosts he might have to keep and eye out for. Danny and Jazz just tuned him out until they arrived.

“Danny, hey!” Kaetlyn waved , standing with Same and Tucker. The boy hurried to them, still a little sleepy.

“Where’s Reid?” He asked his friends.

“Don’t ask me, dude.” Tucker crossed his arms. Sam shrugged while Kaetlyn checked her phone.

“He says he’ll just look for us when he gets here. He shouldn’t be long.” Kaetlyn answered his question.

“What should we do first?” Sam asked.

“I don’t know about you, but the hotdog stand looks tasty.”

“Egh… I hate carnival food. Can’t they serve something that doesn’t involve a dead animal?”

“How about we buy pretzels instead?” Kaetlyn suggested, afraid the carnivore and herbivore would end up in another food fight.

The group agreed and went on the hunt for soft pretzels. Instead, they found funnel cakes, which was ten times better. They played rock paper scissors to see who would pay. Kaetlyn lost and paid with the money her parents lended her for the fair specifically.

“Ah ah. I paid, I get the most.” The girl stated.

“Oh come on!” Tucker exclaimed.

“It’s the rules in this little friendship we have. I might have paid, but I get the larger portion.”

“Sam, can’t you pay for another funnel cake? Just this once?” He begged.

“What? No.”

“But you’re loaded!”

“My  _ parents  _ are loaded. I only have enough for ride tickets.”

Tucker crossed his arms. Danny inserted himself in the conversation by saying, “If you really don’t want your portion, I don’t mind-“

“No! Hands off!” Tuckers pulled the plate closer to him.  Kaetlyn pulled it back to the center and cut off a piece with her fork.

“I’ll tell you, I really missed these back in Paris!” She exclaimed with a mouthful of fried pastry. The rest of the group enjoyed their portion. It wasn’t much since it had been split between four people, but they could always buy another one later. Besides, there were plenty of rides and it’s common sense not to ride on a full stomach. 

Sam paid for tickets for herself and Kaetlyn. The guys had to combine their money to pay for their tickets and still have some leftover. Oh the joys of overpriced food and temperatures too hot to be on metal machines of entertainment!

After the first ride -The dropper- Kaetlyn checked her messages. Reid said he should be here, somewhere.

The group kept an eye out for him, trying to meet up at the ticket booth so he could buy some. After a couple minutes of frantic texting, Reid finally found his friends and ran up to them.

“Finally! I thought we’d be here another hour!” Kaetlyn exclaimed. Sam agreed with her.

“Sorry. My sister took a long time getting ready…”

“With what?” Sam asked.

“I don’t know.  _ You’re _ the girls! Wouldn’t you have an idea?”

Danny placed his hand on Reid’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, I understand.”

“While you two with sibling problems, this only child is going to go to the mirror maze.” Tucker said, pointing to himself.

“Single children, only, suckers.” Kaetlyn shrugged with a smug look on her face. 

Sam followed, saying, “I just want to get out of the sun before I burn.”

Danny and Reid exchanged looks before following. The mirror maze was something they all loved growing up. Reid just got into the tradition, and the only experience he’s gotten out of it was a bruised nose from running into all of the mirrors. Yay…

The group stood at the entrance. “So, how are we doing this this time?” Kaetlyn asked, “Every man for himself? Pairs?”

Tucker walked ahead of them. “You do what you want, but I bet you I can get out with my eyes closed!”

“Oh? How?” Sam asked sarcastically.

Tucker pulled out his phone, “A new app of mine. I made it just for this occasion.” He continued explaining as he took a bandana from his pocket and wrapped it around his eyes, “It acts as echolocation. My phone will start to beep when I get close to a wall. If there’s no beeping, then I’m going the right way.”

The four just watched Tucker listen to his beeping phone as he tried navigating through the maze.

“Isn’t that against the rules?” Kaetlyn asked.

“You know, sometimes, I don’t know.” Danny replied.

“Ow about the girls and guys pair up? First two out wins?” Sam suggested with a smirk.

“Alright, let’s go!” Kaetlyn already ran ahead, turning back and stuck her tongue out as she said, “You boys are going down!”

Sam caught up to her. Leaving Reid and Danny to fend for themselves. They continued through the maze, taking a different path than the girls and Tucker.

“I say if we get out first, we make them buy us some footlong hotdogs.” Reid suggested.

“Deal. Sam wouldn’t like that, though.”

He smirked, “Well it’s not like she’s eating the- Ow!” Reid ran into a mirror, his head bouncing back at impact. Danny bursted with laughter.

Rubbing his stinging nose, Reid gave an agitated look at his reflection. He snarled. His emotions seemingly flipped a switch and his eyes widened in shock when he thought he saw fangs in replace of his teeth.

“Are you okay?” Danny asked.

“Eh- Yeah, I’m fine…” He caught up to his friend, being careful to not mistake the reflections as a real person. He’d check himself in the mirrors every now and then. The fangs he thought he saw were gone. Maybe it was just something weird with the lighting?

 

________________________________________________________

 

Kaetlyn and Sam made their way through the maze, their hands on the walls around them as they ran into dead ends and almost running into a few mirrors.

“Did they make the maze bigger? I don’t remember it taking this long last time.” Kaetlyn said, following Sam.

“It’s only been a few minutes.” 

“I know but I want food…!” Kaetlyn tubbed her stomach, “I don’t like the random people we run into either.”

“It’s the hottest part of the day. If you wanted less people, come later when it’s cooler.” Sam said as they turned a corner, “I’m sure half the people here are just in the maze to get away from the sun.”

“Like you?”

“Yeah.”

The girls came to a part of the maze with funhouse mirrors. Kaetlyn just hoped this meant they were getting closer to the exit.

“Dang it… You’re taller than me…” She sighed when looked at Sam’s reflection. The mirror she stood in front of made her taller and as skinny as a pole. Kaetlyn’s mirror made her look like someone stepped on her and flattened her.

“I guess these stupid things are good for something, afterall.” Sam moved around, enjoying her extra inches of height. She suddenly took a double take when she thought she saw her reflection’s ears to be pointed. It was probably just the funhouse mirror’s doing.

The girls kept enjoying themselves with the mirrors, stopping at every mirror they found especially funny. Eventually, Sam convinced her friend to continue searching for the exit.

Making one last funny face at her reflection, Kaetlyn giggled with Lunna in her hood while they followed Sam. The girl felt something tug on her jacket and pull her to the floor. Sam looked back when she heard a thus from the fall.

“What’re you doing?” She asked.

Kaetlyn looked around. No one was around, surprisingly. So who could’ve pulled her down? “Dunno. Sorry.” She stood up, taking a last glance at her funhouse reflection. Her red eyes were wide with confusion.

The girls continued to search for the exit. Both of them had a strange feeling, almost as if they were being watched, but neither really mentioned it.

Sam took the lead, her hands in front of her to keep from running into mirrors. She felt something kick her feet, tripping her over.

“Kaetlyn!”

“Don’t look at me! Why would you think it was me?” She replied, talking quickly.

Sam sighed, picking herself up and continuing. She stopped and spun around when she heard Kaetlyn grunt in pain, holding her hair.

“Are you okay?!”

“Something pulled on my hair!”

Sam raised and eyebrow. She turned back around to almost run into her reflection, but this mirror image of her looked different. It had pointed ear and glowing red eyes. She jumped back into Kaetlyn.

Both of their reflections laughed menacingly.

“What the heck is going on?!” Kaetlyn exclaimed, her eyes as wide as Sam’s.

They huddled as close to the middle of the walkway as possible, scared of what would happen next. To their surprise, the laughing and reflections vanished as soon as they blinked. Now it was just them, just two girls, a hiding kwami, and their reflections.

“Okay. What was that…?” Kaetlyn asked, confused and scared.

“Where did it go?”

 

Tucker -his eyes still blindfolded- followed the beeping from his phone. He has yet to run into any walls. Grant it, he went a lot slower than the average human.

He heard laughing. As creepy as it sounded, he didn’t bother worrying about it. It was probably just another person trying to find their way out.

He didn’t hear the ghostly echoes coming from his reflection though, much less see the pointed ears and fangs in his reflection.

As the beeping grew louder, Tucker stopped in his tracks. He slowly turned in a circle until the beeping slowed, but it didn’t.

“Huh? Hey! What’s wrong with this thing?” He lightly hit his palm on the side of the phone. Spinning again, it still rapidly beeped. Annoyed, he lifted his bandana to see his reflection. Red eyes, pointed ears, fangs, and green skin. When he screamed in terror, it cackled with him.

“Did you hear that?” Kaetlyn asked Sam. The goth girl let the scream reply in her head.

Both girls knew soon enough- “Tucker!” They split ways. How were they supposed to find someone in the middle of a maze?! Much less a-

_ Donk! _

Kaetlyn bounced back, holding her nose with both of her hands after running into a mirror.

“Jeez! Agh…”

Lunna flew out from the girls hood, stating, “If we try to hurry, we’ll just run into walls.”

“ _ I’ll  _ just run into walls.” Kaetlyn’s muffled voice said through her hands, “Moon, Rise!”

Lune could use her echolocation aspect of her howl, but what if this was an akuma ir ghost? She’d need to save her ability for later

The wolf cautiously wandered through the maze, using her hearing to help pinpoint where Tucker might be. Instead, she felt something otherworldly phase through her. It phased through the wall beside her, coming back a few seconds later to be Danny Phantom.

“Wait- How are you here?!” Lune exclaimed.

“I can ask you the same thing!” He phased out of the wall and turned his ghost tail into a pair of feet to stand in front of the heroine.

“I have a normal human life outside of the superhero business. I can come to the festival if I want!”

“You said you were here to hunt an akuma. We defeated the thing. What are you still doing here?”

Lune growled. They had no time for this. They needed to find Tucker, or at least find what made him scream.

“Come on! Turn intangible and fly me through.”

Danny took her hand and did as ordered. He just wanted his friend to be okay.

While searching, Lune noticed a blue wisp or air escape Danny’s mouth. All of a sudden, he seemed to know where the ghost that supposedly attacked Tucker is.

“What was that? That blue breath thing?” She asked.

“I call it my ghost sense. I get my ‘blue breath’ when another ghost is nearby.”

Danny pulled her through one last wall of mirrors before letting her go and both of them turning tangible. They were in a short hallway with Tucker crouched on the floor, his hands over his head.

“T- Are you okay?” Lune asked, rushing to her friend.

“The mirrors. They’re alive!”

Huh…?” The ghost boy and wolf girl let out in sync. They both flinched with an otherworldly voice echoed in the room. 

“So you’re the heroes in Amity I’ve heard so much about.” It said; A combination of female and male voices.

When trying to find the source, they noticed their reflections to be a totally darker version of themselves. The eyes, ears, and teeth were different, moving on their own terms. The reflections stayed in the same position as those it was a reflection of, if that makes sense.

“Are you a ghost or an akuma?” Lune asked in a deep voice. They had to know what they were dealing with, first.

“I’ve never heard of an akuma. Is that the thing from a few days ago?” Its voice echoed in the hallway, whispers underneath its breath.

“Danny, do you have your thermos?”

“Yep.” He held it out, prepared to fight.

“How is eating soup suppose to help you?” The reflections pulled themselves out the mirrors, closing in on the two humans and ghost boy.

Lune whispered for Tucker to stand up, and he did. He tried calming down. She guessed he had just gotten so used to dealing with ghost attacks in town.

“Danny,  _ you’re _ the ghost hunter.” The wolf pointed out.

The ghost boy stared at his reflections. Their skin was a pale green and if ghosts had breath, he bet it would stink. “Duck!” He shouted. Lune and Tucker fell to the ground just before Danny shot his ghost ray at the mirrors around him.

The glass shattered and they became scorched, unable to reflect anything anymore.

“Sorry, looks like you’re caught in the middle of the fight.” Lune apologized to Tucker. He gave a look at Danny, unsure of how to act.

“I doubt it’s that easy to beat the ghost. We should keep an eye out for it.” The ghost boy suggested. “It seems to take the form of a person’s reflection, so we should stay clear of mirrors.”

“There’s a slight problem with that, Danny.” Tucker said in a slightly agitated tone.

“I’m more worried about how we’re going to catch this thing.” 

“Lune does have a point though…” Danny agreed. His guard went back up when his ghost sense activated. The others noticed it too and looked around for this ghost.

There weren’t any mirrors that could reflect their appearances, so where could it-

“Watch out!” Lune exclaimed as her reflection leapt at her from a mirror at the end of the hall. While trying to fend it off, Danny shot a ghost ray near it as a warning shot to get it off of her.

“You brat!” The reflection ran at Danny instead, its appearance and voice changing from Lune’s into the ghost boy’s.

“You should run!” Lune shouted at Tucker, and that’s what he did. If he could find Sam and Reid, they would be able to help.

The wolf came at the reflection of Danny, putting him in a headlock.

“Wrong ghost!” He choked. Lune instantly let go. The two danny faced each other, ready to fight each other again.

“Lune, help me get him!” They shouted at her in sync.

“Ohhhh no.” Lune placed her hand over her mouth, trying to figure out which one could be the real Danny Phantom. “Uh… When did we first meet?”

“Since the beginning of summer!”

“What was the first ghost I dealt with?”

“Skulker!

“Dang. It can even reflect speech?” Asking questions wouldn’t work… “Oh. Danny, face me real quick.”

Both ghost turned their bodies toward her. The reflection changed from Danny’s in Lune’s.

“Ha!” The wolf let out a laugh. Danny punched the Lune reflection. As he took out his thermos, the ghost phased back into the mirror and ran away.

“We got a runner!” Lune bolted after it.

“Thank goodness I can fly!” Danny took Lune by the wrist and turned them both intangible, phasing through walls when necessary. He followed his ghost sense to not lose track.

The phased through another wall of mirrors. Danny saw Tucker, Sam, and Reid and ended up getting distracted by them.

“Are you guys okay?” He asked, stopping in his tracks and forgetting about the ghost.

“We’re fine, but we saw our reflections act out. It sounds weird, but Tucker said it was a ghost?” Sam explained.

“Yeah, we’re looking for it.”

“Until you lost it worrying about random people.” Lune cut in, “You guys seem to know each other a little better, though…”

“Uh...Lune, remember those friends that helped me ghost hunt?” Danny sounded nervous.

“Yes.”

“Uh, well… here they are. Sam, Reid, and Tucker.”

“In case you haven’t figured it out by now, yes, I  _ am  _ the genius of the group.” Sam and Reid glared at Tucker.

As much as Lune would love to question why her friends teamed up with a ghost, they needed to hunt one down.

“Quick, how are we supposed to catch a ghost that can have multiple bodies?” Danny asked, waiting for suggestions.

“It couldn’t inhabit any broken mirrors.” Tucker pointed out.

“That’s right. Once they were fried, it had to move on to another mirror.” Lune spoke. Their brainstorming session was interrupted by their reflections speaking to them. The teeth meant a ghost lived in these mirrors.

“‘It’? ‘The ghost’? Just call me Funhouse, will you?” Their reflections’ voices echoed with a hint of boredom in their tone.

Danny used his ghost ray to fry  _ all  _ the mirrors that could possibly reflect their images. He huffed, tired of this nonsense. “Sam, Tucker, Reid, you guys work on getting any people here out. Me and Lune will work on destroying all the mirrors. Only leave one good one.” He said the last part specifically to the wolf.

“On it.” Reid nodded. Then the three split up.

“How am I supposed to destroy anything?” Lune shrugged, raising her voice, “I don’t got green ghost rays emitting from my hands.”

“Don’t you have that howl?” He asked, raising an eyebrow. 

Lune expression softened as she realized. “Oh yeaaaaaaaahh…”

Danny facepalmed and flew off to do his job. Lune when the other way, finding the starting point of the good mirrors.

“Okay… Just gotta use my howl and destroy as many as possible.” She rolled her shoulders and stretched, as if preparing to run a marathon. “Midnight, howl!”

The power built up from her stomach, rising into her through before a loud and deafening howl escaped her mouth. The glass shattered around her, shards all over the floor.

“Ooo… hope I don’t have to pay for that.” That’s right, without Ladybug, the damages would remain in the aftermath.”

Lune ran down through the maze, taking every turn until she found where her howl didn’t reach, which was surprisingly very minimal. It was easier now that she could tell what was a wall and what wasn’t.

Lune left one alone and started punching and kicking the rest. When would Funhouse show up again? He hasn’t bothered making a move yet, unless he was already fighting Danny?

Speaking of that ghost boy, how did he manage to recruit her friends to help ghost hunt? They knew Danny Fenton pretty well, so access to the thermos and other gadgets would be pretty easy, but why not ask for Fenton’s help too?

Danny Phantom’s voice shook Lune out of her thoughts. She had destroyed quite a bit of mirrors. 

He flew down the maze, taking the wolf by the wrist once more and turned intangible as he asked for where she left the one good mirror. Lune made sure to try and remember what turns she took. Being able to skip a few pathways helped.

Her miraculous started beeping with only two minutes left. Missing a jewel really messed with the countdown.

“Alright, you just stand in front of it.” He whispered to her in case Funhouse might hear. Lune did as told and stood in front of the mirror, keeping a close eye on any signs that Funhouse might have taken place of her reflection.

She tensed when she saw her ears grow pointed, and her irises turning from hazel to red. “Funhouse.”

“Glad the name stuck.” It said, the teeth replaced with fangs as it grinned. 

Staring straight at the ghost, Lune back up against the wall behind her, careful of the glass. Danny waited on the side, out of view from Funhouse.

It took the bait and pulled itself out of the mirror. That’s when Danny opened the thermos and Funhouse got sucked right in, screaming in surprised terror.

Lune sighed in relief. That thing honestly frightened her. Hearing her miraculous beep with only one jewel glowing, she ran off to try and hide. With all the mirrors broken, there’d be no chance of Danny seeing her turn back into Kaetlyn. Lunna sighed and slowly fell into the girl’s hand in exhaustion.

“Don’t worry. I’ll give you some of my hotdog.” Kaetlyn offered after hearing her kwami’s stomach growl. Lunna smiled at the sound of a hot meal.


	9. More Akumas

Kaetlyn sat on the floor in front of her drawers, turning the thermos in her hands. It’s the weekend, so her parents were home. Her dad grilled outside while her mother cleaned the house. She’d call Kaetlyn to help her at some point today. She never bothered cleaning and only does the dishes out of habit. Everything else she tries to avoid.

She stared at the thermos that held the akuma. No one seemed to despise anyone that Krahia had affected anymore. Could the the effects wear off after a while? What happened with Funhouse also bugged her. Danny Phantom said her friends helped him ghost hunt. Did Danny Fenton help too? It would make sense. 

“Kaetlyn!” Her mother’s voice called from downstairs. Sighing, Kaetlyn hid the thermos, stood up, and walked downstairs. Lunna waited in her room.

“Yeah?” The girl asked, already knowing what she wanted.

“Can you help take out the trash? I just finished vacuuming.”

“Alright…” Kaetlyn ran back upstairs to clean all the trash cans, then running downstairs to empty the one in the kitchen and bathroom. She took what she could and went outside to throw the bags out. 

When coming back for her second trip, her mother also added, “Oh, and can you change the bags too?”

“Ugh…. Mom…!”

“Stop complaining. I should make you clean instead.” She said as she washed her hands in the kitchen sink. “You’re in high school. I’m surprised I haven’t made you do chores yet.”

“Because you love me?” Kaetlyn smiled, leaning over the bartop.

With an unimpressed look, her mom splashed water from her hands onto her daughter’s face.

“Ack!”

“Go help.”

“Okay! Okay!”

They both smiled. 

Kaetlyn took her last batch of trash bags and walked outside to throw them out. She tossed them in the giant grey trash can and went back inside. She had her hand on the door knob when she heard screams down the road.

Running out onto the sidewalk, she saw a boy with a wild and colorful form of casual clothing. He wore sunglasses over his eyes. When lowering them to look at people, their fear of him vanished and they became relaxed with no care in the world. 

People slept, sunbathed, played. It looked like a normal summer, buuut… not really. They did whatever they want, not caring what happened around them. It would become a hazard to them and others.

As the boy approached Kaetlyn’s house, she hid behind a fence. Her neighborhood was rather compact with plenty of small -yet beautiful- multi story houses. Some had fences, others didn’t, but she didn’t have a backyard. 

The boy didn’t notice her, passing her by without a second glance. She bolted inside when he wouldn’t see her and hurried upstairs. She scrambled to get the thermos.

An akuma? It had to be an akuma! He wasn’t a ghost! Hawk Moth can only akumatize one person at a time. Is she dreaming? Did Hawk Moth get a power up? What did he farm for all that EXP to level up?!

Kaetlyn got the thermos and rushed back downstairs. 

“Sorry, Mom! I gotta visit Sam. Bye!” She spoke too quickly. Too many thoughts ran through her mind.

She raced after the boy who she  _ knew  _ was an akuma. He took is time, so she caught up to him quickly. She dipped into a small gap between houses and whispered, “Moon, rise.” But no transformation. “Moon rise! Moon rise, Lun-“

Oh. Ohhh no. Dang it. How could she forget she left Lunna behind?! She could run back to her house, but the akuma would be long gone by then. It  _ was  _ an akuma, right? It had to be! Unless there’s a new supervillain? Egh… There’s already Hawk Moth and the ghosts. She didn’t need to worry about another villain!

Okay. Okay, okay, okay, okay.  _ Calm down.  _ Kaetlyn needed to clear her thoughts and just focus on the now. She could worry about the later… later.

 Eck. Using the same word next to each other is always so confusing.

Kaetlyn kept distance between the villain and herself as she followed him, making sure she could hide almost instantaneously.

So, there was a villain in Amity. Not a ghost. Maybe akuma. She could worry about ‘why’ later. She left Lunna in her room and let’s just assume there’s no way her kwami could come find her without the chance of being seen. Kaetlyn might just have to catch this villain herself. 

Danny Phantom couldn’t help her. It’s not like she had his number. Buuuuut-

Kaetlyn hid behind the car parked on the side of the road, dialing the first number she could think of out of her friends. Why didn't she just go to her contacts? I don’t know. Maybe she didn’t feel like scrolling through them all until she got to a friend. 

“Hey? What’s going on?” The voice on the other side of her phone asked.

“Reid! Hey, uh…” She kept her volume in check, “There’s an akuma -or at least I think an akuma- in my neighborhood. I don’t know. I just need help and I don’t think Lune will be here any time soon!”

Urgency crept into his voice, “Don’t worry! I’m sure Danny- I mean… Invis-O-Bill will come any time now!” While Kaetlyn doubted his comment, Reid texted Danny about the situation. He replied saying he was already flying there.

Reid decided he would come and help too. “I’ll be back soon!” He announced to his family before rushing out. His sister didn’t even get the chance to ask him where he was off to.

Reid sprinted down the sidewalk, hurrying to Kaetlyn’s house. Luckily, they lived a walking distance away from each other.

Should he call Sam and Tucker? They might have to tell her about Danny’s powers if they were all there. Lune already knew that they helped ghost hunting. If some Parisian hero knew, why couldn’t their friend?

 

________________________________________________________

 

Kaetlyn tailed the villain, watching him crank everyone’s vacation mode up to eleven. She tried thinking of a plan to defeat him without any powers or help. Maybe Danny Phantom would swoop in to help if the problem becomes worse, but let’s hope that doesn’t hap-

Something flew as fast as lightning down the road, ramming into the villain. Kaetlyn had to balance herself so she wouldn’t tip over from the wind created by this thing.

When it stopped from impact and the villain flew several yards, skidding across the pavement, the thing turned out to be Danny. So Reid was right? Well, he did know Phantom a bit. He worked with him. That still sounds odd…

“Danny!” Kaetlyn shouted, popping up from her hiding spot behind a trash can left out for trash day, which was actually tomorrow for them.

He spun around, “Kae- Kid!” He stuttered.

“I know you’re dead and all, but you’re physically the same age as me.” She furrowed her eyebrows. That’s the second time he called her that.

They both heard footsteps quickly approaching them. They saw Reid running down the sidewalk.

“Reid! What-”

“I came as a backup.” He said through huffs, trying to catch his breath.

“You play basketball. Just how bad is your stamina?” Kaetlyn asked.

“I don’t run that fast for that long, though.” He huffed.

“Guys, get away!” Danny shouted. The villain stood up, rubbing the side of him that skidded along the concrete.

“Jeez, you had to make me get up. All I want is for people to enjoy their summer!” He shouted.

“How about you enjoy my fist to your face!” Danny swung a punch at him. The villain dodged. He swung a few more, all with the same outcome.

“The name’s Fak. You’re way too tense to fight me. Maybe you should unwind…” Fak lowered his sunglasses to stare into Danny’s green eyes. He started to feel light. Fighting started to seem like a waste of time to him.

“You stupid ghost!” Kaetlyn ran up to Danny, wrapping her hand over his eyes and pulling him away. Fak pushed his glasses up the bridge up his nose, frowning.

“When he looks at you, you become like everyone else!” 

Fak sighed, “But wouldn’t it be so much better that way? You can enjoy your summer and do what you want! After this whole town thinks that way, summer can last all-year-round.”

Danny’s feet turned into a ghost tail. He took Kaetlyn’s hand off of his eyes and took her and Reid to a safer spot. He flew down a few blocks and placed them back on the ground.

“You two stay safe. I’ll take care of this akuma.” He told them and flew off before Reid could retaliate.

“How is he supposed to get the akuma without a thermos?!” Kaetlyn exclaimed, upset she can’t transform into Lune. She could run off and get back to her room, but her parents would scold her for running off during chores. They’d ask about Sam too… She can’t come up with that many excuses at once.

“How do you know a Fenton Thermos can hold akumas?” Reid asked.

Speaking of excuses… “Uh… A- A girl has her ways.” Maybe that would work?

Reid just decided not to question it. He lived with an older sister, and dealt with two others on a daily basis, yet he doesn’t know anything about the female population. Maybe they  _ do  _ have a “women's intuition” thing.

Kaetlyn sighed softly. She and Reid stood in awkward silence. Kaetlyn needed her kwami and Reid was torn between helping Danny and keeping her safe.

“S-so… Second akuma attack in amity…” Reid smiled nervously, “That’s sure to be in the news. Something for your dad to write about.”

Kaetlyn smirked, “Heh, yeah. I guess.”

Thennnnnnn silence fell again. Yay…

…

…

Kaetlyn walked towards Fak and Danny without a word.

“Hey wait! It’s safer-”

“Oh, come on! I’m not the type to care!” She called back, staying straight ahead.

“You  _ weren’t  _ the type to care.” He mumbled. He recalled how Kaetlyn use to act when he was still new to his current friend group. She’s definitely changed over the years, yet some old habits would surface every now and then.

Sighing, Reid followed Kaetlyn, but he couldn’t make his third step without something flying through the air.

“Kaetlyn!” He shouted as he bolted up to her and pulling her back as he saw Fak speed by them and crash into the hood of a parked car, which left a massive dent that probably wouldn’t buff out.

They fell backwards thanks to weight and gravity. Danny flew down the road, stopping to when reaching the villain.

“Don’t hurt him too badly! He’s still a normal human!” Kaetlyn shouted at the ghost.

“Got it!” He shouted back. While the ghost and akuma fought, Reid and Kaetlyn slowly realized where they were. Reid still had his arms wrapped around her sides. He immediately let go and they stood up, their faces turning bright red.

“S-sorry.” He apologized.

“It’s fine…” She hid her face by letting her hair fall over it.

Reid glanced to the side, his eyes widening. “Duck!” And they did. Danny shot a ghost ray. It missed Fak and almost hit them.

“Be careful!” Reid shouted.

“What did I  _ just _ say about hurting him!” Kaetlyn exclaimed.

“Sorry! But he keeps dodging my attacks.” The ghost boy apologized, trying to get a hit in on Fak. He kept dodging with ease, as if he didn’t even try. 

Fak sighed, “All three of you need to unwind.” He leaned back to avoid Danny’s last attack and speed walked to Reid. He took off his sunglasses and stared into his eyes. Reid started to feel the effects of the akuma’s abilities. A purple moth outline appeared over Fak’s eyes, a woman’s voice praising him for his work.

All three boys flinched when Kaetlyn swung her thermos into Fak’s head. Well, just the two. The akuma had been knocked unconscious and lay on the floor.

Danny and Reid needed a few seconds to comprehend what just happened.

A few seconds of silence followed. Kaetlyn breaking it by speaking in a confused tone, “...That easy? Really?”

Fak moaned in pain. He slowly sat himself up. Not knowing what to do, Kaetlyn swung the metal thermos at him again, knocking him out for good this time.

“W-where’s the akuma?” Danny asked, currently scared of Kaetlyn.

“Uhm…” Making an educated guess, Reid took Fak’s glasses and snapped them in half. A purple moth flew out.

Making sure to avoid Danny, Kaetlyn took off the lid of her thermos, sucking up the moth. Now there were two moths fluttering inside. There had to be, right? If the first got out, Kaetlyn knew something bad would happen. She wasn’t there to see it, but it’s happened before.

“Wait, where did you get the thermos?” Reid asked her.

“Uhhhh… Well you see…” Processing… “I saw it laying around? Lune must have left if when she patrolled the area. The heroes in France keep and eye out for akumas at night. That’s probably what she was doing.”

“But that’s at night. It’s not-“

Kaetlyn faked a non convincing laugh, “You know what? I just remembered I had some chores to do. I’ll be off!” She hurried home, leaving the boys where they were.

“That’s weird. When she called me, she said she didn’t see Lune at all.” Reid informed Danny, who transformed into his human form.

“Maybe she was patrolling the area before the attack?” Fenton suggested.

“Maybe?”

With really nothing else to do, the boys headed home. Reid would text Kaetlyn when he got back to his place.

 

________________________________________________________

 

Kaetlyn snuck upstairs and hid her thermos in her bottom drawer.

“How was the fight? Bet it was so easy without your powers.” Lunna asked sarcastically, obviously hurt her miraculous holder forgot about her.

“I’m sorry, okay? I was in a rush. You could’ve searched for me.” Kaetlyn shrugged.

“I didn’t know where you were!”

“Which is why you could’ve searched for me.”

“Kaetlyn!” Her mom stomped upstairs. “Avoiding a simple task? I called Sam’s parents so they can send you back here and they said you never came. Where did you run off too?!”

“Uhh...Mom, I’m-”

“Don’t apologize. Tell me where you were.” She sighed and began speaking to herself, “I didn’t even have a rebellious stage this early. Dad never went through one… What happened?”

“Mom, please! I’m sorry!” While she tried coming up with an excuse that can keep her punishment as light as possible, a tear appeared in the bottom drawer. A hand reached in and took the thermos, releasing the moth into Paris, France to instead akumatize someone else.


	10. Not Really A Date

 

Kaetlyn moped on her bed. Her parents took her phone away for the foreseeable future and replaced it with an old flip phone. They were pretty upset when she just left for no reason. How was she supposed to watch movies on the go  _ now _ ?

Lunna sat on top of her miraculous holder’s head while she tried to find a way to cheer her up.

“Come on, it was only a downgraded phone.” The kwami said.

Kaetlyn sighed, “This is temporary. Mom said she and Dad would discuss a more fitting punishment.” 

She planted her face into her pillow, Lunna floating up from the girl’s head.

“Why is my life like this?!” She lifted her head, “I wouldn’t have to deal with half the stuff I do if Lune and I were different people…”

“You need to make a few sacrifices for the greater good sometimes. Besides, I think you make a good Lune.” Lunna sat on top of the pillow.

Kaetlyn smirked. “Thanks.” She then heard a knock downstairs. Her parents were at work, so she walked downstairs and answered. It was Reid, surprisingly.

“What are you doing here? I thought you liked playing sports around this time of day.” Kaetlyn asked, “Wait, please don’t make me play against you…”

Reid smiled sweetly, “No, no. I actually came to see if you were free today.”

“Huh? Why? Does Tucker want to show off a new game console?” She took a step forward and closed the door behind her.

“No, I was thinking… It would just be is today. Something calmer. Unwind a bit.”

Kaetlyn cringed at the thought of Fak from the other day. He was just some older teenager who got stressed over school starting soon. Everything went back to normal rather quickly that day; Almost as if Ladybug’s swarm of ladybugs flew all the way to America to fix the mess left behind.

“Uh… Give me a second.” Kaetlyn walked inside, hurrying upstairs and taking Lunna with her this time. She went into the bathroom and doublechecked her appearance, making sure she looked okay.

Wait, she cared about her looks why? She shook her head, cheeks turning pink. Kaetlyn hung out with Reid all the time. They would spend days by themselves. Reid would try to teach her basketball, she would try to educate him on movies and actors. What made this so different?

“Come on! Let’s go already!” Lunna whined.

“Okay, okay! Ever heard of patience?” Kaetlyn snapped. She sighed, then hurried back to her friend. “So wear are we heading?” She asked him.

“Hm.. Maybe we can stop at a store and look at the movies? I found a place that sells them pretty cheap.” Reid suggested. They began walking side-by-side down the sidewalk.

“That sounds awesome! I’ve been searching for a specific movie that I just  _ can’t  _ seem to find.”

“What’s it about?”

“It’s this horror movie about some students trapped on the fourth floor of their high school building! There’s a monster chasing them and it looks  _ really  _ creepy.”

Reid rolled his eyes. “Horror movies? Those things are boring. None of the bad guys are realistic and everything’s obviously red paint and scary background music.”

“Not realistic? What about Friday the 14th! There’s a serial killer! Those are realistic! Oh, and TI? It’s a killer clown! Those can exist.”

Reid laughed. Watching her get so worked up over something so small was kinda cute.

They spent their time in the store. Kaetlyn didn’t realize she’d need money until she saw the prices on all of the movies. She should’ve run back to get her wallet when she had the chance…

Reid came prepared though. He paid for one movie she wanted, but she owed him.

“Can’t wait to get home and watch TV!” Kaetlyn exclaimed to herself, excited.

“Don’t you get bored sitting on the couch all day…?” Reid asked as they walked out of the store.

“No. Don’t you get tired of throwing a ball through a hoop all day?”

“Fine then.” He took the bag with the movie inside. “It’s mine now.”

“Hey! Agh!” She reached for the bag, but he just pulled away. Reid continued to dodge his friend, even jogging ahead since he knew she wouldn’t want to put in the effort to catch up.

Sighing, Kaetlyn stayed behind while Reid enjoyed her misery. She just wanted to watch TV! But  _ noOoOooO _ . He has be  _ bE AthLEtIc _ and  _ RUn _ ahead.

Kaetlyn thought of a way to get her movie back. Reid would glance back every several seconds. So when he turned around, Kaetlyn appeared a little closer than last time. It took him awhile to realize she was getting really close.

He glanced behind him to see her a good way behind her, then she was only a couple feet away. Looking back one last time, he jumped when she was close enough to breath on him. Kaetlyn took this moment to snatch the bag back, giggling like a maniac.

“You… That’s the last time I’m spending my money on you!”

“Oh come on… You  _ know  _ I’ll forget my money!”

“That sounds like a you problem.” Reid crossed his arms, acting hurt on purpose. 

“Noooo! Pleaaaase!” Kaetlyn begged. They both burst in laughter and continued walking. 

“Alright, fine, but you can’t judge me for my basketball obsession.” Reid gave in.

“And you can’t judge me for my movie obsession.”

“Deal.”

They giggled a bit more before falling into a peaceful silence. The two of them just wandered around Amity Park. 

It’s not like they would get lost. They grew up here all their lives. They’ve been almost everywhere and have memorized multiple routes to multiple places. They went to Nasty Burger to eat, then they just strolled around. Reid never made any plans past getting a movie…

“Today seems to be really quiet.” Kaetlyn said, trying to start a conversation.

“Hm? What do you mean?”

“Well, there hasn’t been any ghosts in a while. There’s no akumas either, luckily.”

“Heh, yeah… Must just be a quiet day for evil-doing?”

Kaetlyn smirked at that, making a funny looking face. At least his excuse made her  smile.

 

________________________________________________________

 

“Please, Danny. Please?” Reid begged. They out in Danny’s bedroom.

“I said I’ll try.”

“But there needs to be  _ no  _ ghost attack whatsoever. Kaetlyn’s been stressed lately and ghosts would just make it worse.”

Danny sighed, “Alright, fine. Instead of playing video games with Tucker, we’ll be on high alert for ghosts.” 

“ _ Thank you.  _ That’s all I want.” Reid walked out of the boy’s room. Danny just mentally prepared himself to deal with two friends dating each other. It’s bound to happen at some point.

 

________________________________________________________

 

Reid’s eyes lit up when they were walking by a park with a section for basketball. As his favorite sport -and with no one occupying the hoops- he bolted for the section of black pavement. Kaetlyn realized what was going through his mind and sighed. They’d be here for hours on end whether she played with him or not. Oh, wait.

“Ha! You don’t have a basketball!” The girl wore a smug look, happy they could just continue on without any physical activity.

Reid’s eyebrows furrowed in disappointment. He suddenly got an idea and started to look around. To his excitement, there was a couple of guys hanging out at the swings, and they had a basketball! Reid was much more social than his friends -like the weirdo he was- and asked for their ball.

Luckily they weren’t jerks and let him borrow it. They were actually some kids from school last year and they knew him pretty well.

Kaetlyn sighed when she saw him come back. “Loser! Actually talking to people? Jeez, you’re weird.” She teased him.

“You sit inside and watch movies all day. Who’s the weirdo now?”

“Still you.”

Reid just shrugged it off and began shooting hoops. Kaetlyn didn’t know what else to do but check the news on her phone. There had to be an attack somewhere in Amity, right?

Before she could search for any videos, Reid snatched her phone. “Confiscated.” He said.

“Excuse me?”

“Beat me in a match and you’ll get it back. Come on, it’s too nice outside to stare out your phone.” He said as he bounced the ball.

“You’re even more of a weirdo. That’s what teenagers do, we stare out our phones.”

Reid chuckled, then threw the ball at her when she let her guard down, but she managed to catch it with her hands.

“Nice. Now let’s play.”

“ _ Ooorrrrr....  _ I could give the ball back and we can leave.” Kaetlyn suggested.

Reid crossed his arms. “I dare you to actually get up, talk to people you’ve never talked to before, and give their basketball back. I know people at school, you don’t.”

Dang it. Kaetlyn sighed. She stood up and lasily dribbled the ball, failing miserably. She just stopped and walked in front of the hoop. She glanced at her friend, who motioned for her to try. Reluctantly and unenthusiastically, Kaetlyn tossed it at the hoop. It couldn’t even be counted as throwing.

“Come on, you gotta try better than that.” Reid said, walking up to pick up the ball.

“I don’t feel like it.”

He sighed with a joking manner, “Fine then. I’ll return the ball and we can head back.” 

Kaetlyn waited for him to catch up to her before they continued down the sidewalk. They headed back to Kaetlyn’s house, simply enjoying one another’s company. There were a few one liner and short topics, but overall, it was peaceful.

When Reid saw his friend’s house just down the road, he noticed his heart sank a little, having trouble to stay above water. As they got closer, all he could do was worry about Kaetlyn’s well-being. Would she be okay by the mext ghost attack? There seemed to be a lot on her mind. He could only wonder what she might be thinking about.

“Alright, I’ll see you later.” Kaetlyn said when they reached her doorstep.

“Yeah, I’ll...see you…”

Not thinking much of his paused, Kaetlyn closed the door behind her. She stopped when Reid’s hand grabbed the door to stop her. He didn’t even realize he did it.

“Something wrong?” She asked.

Oh no, what should he say?! He didn’t mean to do it, it just happened! Would it be weird if he just played it off as nothing? But it would seem weird if he did that!

“Euhh… N-no.” Really? That’s the best he can do?”

A little confused, but shrugging it off, Kaetlyn turned back.

“Eh- uhm… Kaetlyn! Wait.”

She looked at him. Her cheeks turned pink when he took a step closer to her.

“I...uh… I know it wasn’t a date, really, but…” Ugh...this is embarrassing… “I enjoyed my time with you, and I... wanted to hope to do it again?”

Yep, Kaetlyn’s face had turned into a tomato… “We...we see each other all the time, though.”

“But just with you.” He had subconsciously gotten closer. He couldn’t even think anymore. “Only with you.”

_ Processing…  _ “As friends? Or…”

“I was hoping as… uh… something… uhm-” Too late to turn back, ripping it off like a bandaid would be easier. “I want you to be my girlfriend!”

 


	11. Sakana

Kaetlyn sat in her desk, her head falling over the back of the chair. Mr.Lancer was probably the most boring teacher out of all of them. He had a boring voice that just went on and on and on and on and…

Tucker tapped her head with the eraser  side of his pencil. Kaetlyn jolted awake, rubbing her eyes.

“Eugh…” She groaned.

“Yeah, Mr.Lancer is boring.” Tucker agreed. He sat behind her. “I wish he only had to teach freshmen.”

“I wish he didn’t teach  _ anything.  _ This is awful…”

Mr.Lancer had a blue shirt tucked into dark grey pants and a black tie around his neck. He gained a little- er… He gained a certain amount of weight in his stomach? It’s hard trying to word something like that nicely…

By the time the bell rang, Kaetlyn was already out of the door. At least it wasn’t science class, but Mr.Lancer had a tendency to make anything boring. 

Tucker followed shortly behind her, waving to Danny and Sam as they came from there classes.

“So, how was social studies?” Sam asked Kaetlyn, crossing her arms with a smug look on her face.

“Awful. You guys were right…”

The other three laughed. Even though this was their second year of high school, it was Kaetlyn’s first year in Casper High. She still only had a flip phone and her dad got a stable job, so they wouldn’t be moving anywhere anytime soon. She still missed Arden and Xack, though.

“Hey guys. I’ve been looking for you.” Reid greeted, moving to the side of the hall with his friends to avoid the crowd of students.

“Don’t you have jock friends to hang out with?” Kaetlyn asked to tease him.

“Please, I got kicked out of that circle once I started hanging out with you guys.” He smiled. She giggled back.

“How about we just leave you two aline for a bit?” Tucker suggested as he nudged Sam and Danny away.

“Calm down! We’re just talking.”

“Seems more like flirting to me.”

Danny smiled, “Looks like we’re not gonna be called ‘lovebirds’ anymore, Sam.”

“Ewwwww now there’s  _ two  _ pairs of lovebird losers?” Paulina’s face scrunched in disgust and she walked past them. After that, she continued with unknowingly but knowingly attracting every guy’s attention as she headed to class.

“Bell’s about to ring. I see you guys later.” Sam said as she hurried to her class quite a ways from their current spot. They couldn’t have off of their classes together, sadly.

“Let’s go too. We actually get a class together for high school.” Reid said to Kaetlyn.

“Cool.” She walked beside him, “We’ll talk to you later.” She addressed Tucker and Danny.

The couple walked to class as most of the students started disappearing from the halls to get to their own. 

It’s only been a week since the first day of school and word has already gotten out about their new relationship. Most of the students were from their middle school, so it’s not like no one knew them. They were bound to notice.

Kaetlyn’s fingers brushed Reid’s as they approached the classroom door. Her cheeks became a little pinker. She still hadn’t gotten used to the idea of dating, much less what came with it. Hugging, holding hands and all that didn’t come natural to her. Arden happened to be the only acception. Kaetlyn had gotten use to her affection.

Letting Kaetlyn enter first, Reid followed her inside math class. The bell rung not too long afterwards.

 

________________________________________________________

 

A student with blonde hair and green eyes hid in the boy’s bathroom, eating his packed lunch in one of the stalls. He didn’t like the chatter and echo in the cafeteria. The noise irritated his ears and it made it hard to enjoy his lunch. If only the silence could last forever; Stopping time to where sound couldn’t travel.

A group of boys came into the bathroom, laughing at the stupid jokes they told and acting like idiots. Their voices clashing together didn’t sound soothing at all. It irritated the boy.

A black and purple moth fluttered in the bathroom and phased into the blonde’s broken hearing aids. A purple outline appeared over his furious eyes.

“Sakana, the world is much too noisy.” The soothing voice of a woman echoed in his head, “You now have the power to keep the world in peaceful silence. You can keep these powers as long as you eliminate a ghost named Danny Phantom. Watch out for a loud superhero who calls herself Lune.”

Sakana grinned with evil intent. “Your voice is pleasant. As you wish.”

________________________________________________________

 

The group sat in the cafeteria for lunch. The food still tasted bad. Could any of this even be considered food?

Kaetlyn sat beside Reid. She felt a little fuzzy in her stomach because of it. She’s use to spending time with him, but now everything that involved him -even if it’s happened just as friends- made her feel awkward. How were couples supposed to act? They do on dates, right? Watching movies, eating at a fancy restaurant, chocolates on Valentines day?

“Kaetlyn, you okay?” Reid asked. She blinked her thoughts away.

“Hm? Oh, yeah, I’m fine.”

He gave her a sweet smirk. She glanced away in embarrassment.

“So this is what it feels like to have two friends dating?” Danny asked to no one in particular.

“Yep.” Sam and Tucker confirmed in unison. All three of them could see this day coming a mile away, but the reality of it still needed time to sink in.

“Shut up!” Kaetlyn yelled defensively, blushing.

“I think you guys are just jealous.” Reid said.

“Of  _ course  _ I’m jealous!” Tucker exclaimed, “I’ve been trying to get a date since middle school! No one here appreciates my gamer prowess and good looks.”

No one really knew how to react. They just tried to casually change the subject.

Kaetlyn noticed a strangely clothed boy walked through the cafeteria doors. He had headphones with a uniquely shaped headband, wearing dark muted colors in a rather bland outfit. She would’ve passed it on as just strange student if it weren’t for his literally black skin and hair. She wouldn’t be able to tell the two apart if it weren’t for the blonde tips and highlights of hair.

“I’ll be right back.” Kaetlyn stood up from the table, taking a secondary exit out of the cafeteria. A third akuma? Third? Just how powerful had Hawk Moth had become?! Was Paris okay? He couldn’t have gotten Ladybug and Chat’s miraculouses, right?

“Time to save your boyfriend!” Lunna chimed in, flying out of Kaetlyn’s hood.

“Time to save  _ everyone.  _ Moon Rise!” 

Lune peeked through the small windows of the double doors. She didn’t see the supposed akuma, but the normal students she did see were completely still. Strange…

Cautiously, she opened the door, leaning in. The whole cafeteria had seemingly frozen in time. She walked around. No one acknowledged her or even blinked.

“Oh come on, I thought this trend was over.” She huffed. She didn’t see anyone walking around with a camera though.

She came up to the lunch line. The glass above the food looked fogged for some reason. She checked the kitchen. Even the staff members were completely still. One drank from a water bottle, but the water didn’t move. She walked around the bottle to get a better angle. By laws of physics, the water should be falling, but it didn’t. 

Hoping her theory was incorrect, she went back to the fogged mirror, which wasn’t fogged at all. It was the steam from the food. Even the steam had stopped moving!

Lune bolted out of the cafeteria, running down the halls and checking every other room she passed. Had time just stopped?!

She stopped to make sure she connected the dots properly. An akuma-looking guy waltzes into Casper’s cafeteria. She leaves as Kaetlyn and comes back as Lune. Lune noticed the akuma guy is gone and time apparently doesn’t exist anymore. 

The wolf turned around, planning to search for the akuma, but she jumped in surprise to see him right in front of her. He placed his finger over his lips to tell her to keep quiet.

“Who are you?!” She exclaimed, ready to fight.

The akuma wore a disappointed expression. It looked like he sighed, but no sound came out. She noticed his hand go to the housing of his headphones.

“Fine, don’t tell me. But at least give me whatever the akuma is hiding in.” She noticed her voice got quieter without her telling it to do so. She didn’t think and only punched the boy across the face. He crouched down on the floor, holding his hands over where he got punched.

Lune could still move, but it took a little more effort and her voice couldn’t be any louder than a whisper. She didn’t even think, she just acted. So his headphones caused the time stopping?

The sound wheel on his headset must be able to affect the noise of anything around him. Yes, I’m calling it a sound wheel. I can’t find what it’s actually called so stop judging me!

The boy stood up with a stance ready for a fight. A purple moth outline appeared, the woman’s soft voice telling him to take care of Lune. He planned to do get rid of her anyways, but he liked listening to her soothing voice.

He ran at her. Lune took his arm and threw him onto the floor. Not even the impact of tiled floor made a sound.

He jumped up again, charging at her, but at the last second he jumped onto the wall and propelled off. The soles of his shoes planted in her face and Lune’s fell back. She rubbed her face that had become red with a shoe print. She tried to keep quiet, saving the last bit of her voice as a last resort.  

She tried standing up, but the teenager gave her an uppercut in the jaw, then spin kicking her through the wall into the janitor’s closest.

He must have not gotten to this room, because the cleaning supplies on the shelves, brooms and mops leaning against the walls fell down on top of the wolf, causing a loud crash followed by smaller thudding. A trashcan rolled out of the caping hole and into the middle of the hallway.

During the whole thing, the akuma covered his ears, wincing in pain as he messed with the sound wheel to mute everything.

_ Hm.... _

Lune squeezed out of the items that fell over her. When the boy silences anything, that thing is frozen no matter how you try to move it. It just stays there. 

The wolf got up, pretending to prepare to fight him. When the boy copied her stance, she instead bolted down the hall, in search for the band room. 

Each step of hers became quieter and quieter and it became harder and harder to move her legs. Realizing what the boy was doing, Lune stopped. She would have to find a way to get to the band room without making a sound. Tip toeing would take too long and the akuma would be able to attack her. How could she do this?

The akuma ran after her, not a single tap from his shoes. She readied to block. He jumped on top her to reach for her miraculous. It’s broken anyways, what could he do with it?

Lune surprised him by reaching for his headphones to take them off. He recoiled to keep them on his head.

She kicked him off of her and bolted again. Luckily for her, he couldn’t mute anything he couldn’t hear. Her footsteps were already quiet and she had finally made it to the band room before he could catch up.

_ Speakers, speakers…  _

The storage closest just had instruments and the cubbies had binders full of music sheets.

Lune hit herself with her palm.  _ They don’t need speakers! The instruments are loud enough! _

Maybe the choir room? Theatre most likely has props and costumes. Microphones maybe?

The akuma ran to the band room doorway. It looked like he huffed to catch his breath, but still no sound came from him.

Flinching at his sudden appearance, Lune ran into the storage closest and took the first instrument she saw.

_ How do I play a flute?  _ She couldn’t even play the tambourine in elementary, how’s she supposed to use this?

She just sighed and went with it, blowing through the flute and covering random holes to make a broken and dying note that she winced at along with the akuma.

When he was busy covering his ears, Lune whacked him with the flute and ran.

To the choir room she goes! Wait- eughh… Ewwww ew ew she put her mouth on that flute! Someone else plays that! Ewww ew ew ew!!!

Still disgusted, she filed through the selection of CDs in the choir room. There had to be a title she recognized here, right? What was the loudest song she knew?

Anxious and constantly checking for the akuma, Lune fumbled over the CDs and just picked whichever her fingers could grab onto first. 

She then took the radio and put the disk in. She didn’t press play, not yet.

Lune peered into the hall. Still no sign of the akuma. He’s probably trying to mute everything in the school if he hasn’t already.

The wolf, quickly but quietly, hurried to the auditorium, which was right next to Choir. The class had been frozen, but the speakers were hooked up and seemed to not be under the akuma’s effect. They must have not been using it when he came.

Lune took a microphone and hooked it up to the speakers.  _ Thank you, Film & Audio class.  _ She might have watched a few tutorials alongside that.

Lune pressed play on the radio and hid, waiting for the akuma to come. And come, he did. He clutched his headphones over the deafening noise of pop music. Yes… pop music. He used the sound wheel to mute the radio and speakers. As soon as she noticed this, she whispered her special ability to activate it. She leapt down from the ceiling and howled straight into the mic.

The akuma reacted to the howl, running into the wall behind him and sliding to the ground. His headphones started to crack. The broken pieces fell to the floor around him. Lune stopped the radio and turned down the speakers so they wouldn’t deafen the theatre kids when everything went back to normal.

That’s the weird thing… The chaos the akumas caused in Amity eventually went away. Did the moth flutter back to Hawk Moth?

Lune sucked up the moth with her Fenton Thermos. She took it out of her locker right after leaving the cafeteria.

The akuma turned back into a blonde haired boy with green eyes. He wore one of Casper High’s red and white varsity jacket with a button-up shirt underneath. Lune recognized him from somewhere…

She bent down and picked up the hearing aids that came from the broken headphones. Then held them out for the boy to take. Still dazed and a little nervous, he cautiously took them and put them in his ears.

“What happened?” He asked.

“You must have gotten upset and turned into an akuma. They’re a type of supervillain pretty popular in France.” The wolf answered, helping him stand up.

“I guess your Lune? The news blew up about you during the mall incident.”

“I’m pretty popular, aren’t I? Heh heh…” She smiled nervously. She definitely has to be more careful.

“So that’s what it feels like to become a supervillain? I thought people became villains on their own accord, but there was someone bossing me around…” He softly tapped his hearing aids.

“That’s what Hawk Moth does. He finds negati-”

“Hawk Moth? Is that what she’s called?”

“She?” Lune echoed her thoughts.

“The woman’s voice was so calming. She made all the annoying sounds fade away.”

She just placed her hand on his shoulder, “For next time, maybe get some better hearing aids? Just stay positive and Hawk Moth shouldn’t bother you again.” She took the thermos and headed out of the auditorium. “Oh, you should probably head back to lunch. Some noise sounds better when it comes from friends.”

Lune exited the room, then hurried to the bathroom. She hid the thermos in her locker and went back to the cafeteria. Maybe everything would be back to normal?

"Jayden! That's is name!" Kaetlyn exclaimed. Lunna flew out of her hood real quick for an explanation.

"We met him at a concert once. I think he's a Junior?" 

"How did you even get tickets?" The kwami asked.

"Someone was selling them online. We got front row seats"

While Kaetlyn and Lunna talked, a green ghostly hand reached through a tear and took the thermos, letting the moth flutter back to its owner. That wolf was getting too good at her job. The plan might need to be edited.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry! I try to post on weekends, but life has just been.. Eck. Chapters will take longer and won't be posted as often. I'm sorry! >~<


	12. Undead Bugs

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ooooo~ spoopy O_o
> 
> (not really though)  
> Hope you enjoy!

The thermos sat on the shelf of her bed. Kaetlyn stared at it, cross legged on top of her mattress. Her eyebrows furrowed as she tried to think.

There has been three akumas so far. The moths were kept in the thermos. She’s never seen one escape even if they can phase through objects. Either Hawk Moth got a power up, or something else has been happening that she doesn’t understand yet.

“Kaetlyn!” Mom called from downstairs.

“Yeah?” She called back. No answer. “Mom!” Still no response. “Ergh…” Kaetlyn got off of her bed and walked to the top of the stairs.

“What?” She asked in an agitated tone.

“You’re friend, I mean,  _ boy _ friend is here.” Mom smiled.

Kaetlyn turned red and whined. Her parents had been teasing her about it ever since Reid and herself got together.

She dipped into her room to get her shoes. Lunna hid in her hood and the girl hurried downstairs to see Mom talking to Reid at the dining table.

“Come on, let’s go, Reid.” She told him, already halfway out of the door.

“Oh, okay.” He said goodbye to Mom, then caught up to his girlfriend’s side as they walked down the sidewalk.

“Where are we heading?” Kaetlyn asked him.

“I don’t know. Thought we would just take a stroll.”

“Can’t take too long, though. Sam’s making me review some science stuff before the quiz next week.”

“I could help you. I’m not the smartest in class, but I at least have passing grades.”

“Shut uuuup!” Her cheeks turned pink. Reid just laughed.

Kaetlyn growled, then let it go by exhaling. Awkward silence slowly crept in. As friends, they didn’t feel like they had to talk. They would just walk side-by-side and make a few one liners here and there.

But now, as a couple, it felt like they should be doing something. Holding hands or flirting; Stuff like that. It just didn’t come to them during this walk.

In fact, the best either could come up with was Reid pointing out a beehive hanging from a tree they were about to pass.

Kaetlyn got on the other side of him. Bugs are nasty, that’s just common knowledge, but these could hurt.

“Calm down. Just don’t bother the bees and you’ll be fine.”

“I thought it was fall, why are the insects still here?” She asked.

“It’s not that cold,  _ yet.”  _

Kaetlyn scoffed. Reid made a weird smirk as a reaction. She looked cute at the moment and he didn’t know how to properly respond.

They walked past the tree, continuing their day. However, behind them, a mass of buzzing came to the beehive, swallowing it. When the mass passed over it, the hive had been left empty.

 

________________________________________________________

 

The couple sat under a tree at the park. They joked and playfully bantered. No one from school seemed to be there to make fun of them, luckily.

Reid couldn’t understand why other students were disgusted by their relationship. He found Kaetlyn beautiful. And even though her attitude that just didn’t care could be rude, Reid also admired it. She might have changed, but she seemed happier about it, so he was happy.

Kaetlyn found Reid interesting at first. For some reason, his kind heart didn’t care she was considered the loser of school along with her friends. He left his good reputation to be their friend. And for some reason, he gave up any chance of getting that reputation back by being her boyfriend. She found him attractive in both appearance and morals.

Kaetlyn happily fangirled over a new movie she had found. Not new as in recently made and released, new as in she had discovered its existence not too long ago. Reid liked it when her eyes would glow with passion like they did now.

While she talked, Reid could hear a buzzing in the back of his head. He looked behind him, but didn’t see anything but kids playing on the jungle gym. Maybe his ears were just ringing?

He heard the buzzing again, but it seemed louder. Still nothing but the kids. The third time actually ended up being the kids screaming.

The couple bolted for them. At this point, they’ve dealt with enough ghosts and akumas to be alert when something like this happens.

“What’s wrong?” Kaetlyn asked, looking for spots she could turn into Lune.

“There’s a big bug!” One child pointed at a cicada on the side of the pole.

The teenagers sighed in relief about no villain, but the kids didn’t fully get that.

Kaetlyn approached the bug, swiping it off with her foot. She made sure to keep a distance between her and it. 

The cicada fell off and flew away in Reids direction. She- Oh no, wait, Reid’s a guy. Yeah, hard to tell with that scream. Anyways, he shrieked and ran to Kaetlyn, using her as a wall between the bug and him.

“Great, I got a spider problem and you got an insect problem.” Kaetlyn said sarcastically. Reid let go of her arms and stepped back, apologizing with a shaking voice.

They let the children go back to playing and returned to under the tree. They couldn’t figure out what to talk about now. For now, they tried to enjoy the silence.

A ding came from Kaetlyn’s phone. She took it from her pocket and read Sam’s text. With a sigh, Kaetlyn said, “Sorry, Sam’s asking me to come to her house.”

Reid waved goodbye, wishing her luck on the test. He would have to review a few problems as well. He stayed in the park for a while, enjoying the fresh air before getting up and returning home. Maybe his sister has already done the dishes since he wasn’t home to be told to do so. That would be nice.

Before he would exit the park, he heard more buzzing. He wanted to ignore it, but it got louder. As it grew louder, a shadow grew from under him. He turned around slowly, his eyes widening in fear when he what created the shadow and buzzing.

With another high pitched screamed, Reid sprinted in the opposite direction. “Bugs! Bugs! Undead bugs!” He shrieked. The people on the roads scattered when they saw the swarm of bugs chasing him. Calling Danny would slow him down. All he wanted to do was get away.

He saw Kaetlyn up ahead. Calling her name, she turned around. She still needed time to process what she saw when Reid took her arm and ran with her.

“What is that?!” She asked in fear.

“Bugs! Swarm of bugs! Help!” He yelled.

“Oh, you’re helpful aren’t you!” Kaetlyn spat sarcastically. She needed Danny Phantom and Lune. Where could they be?

“Inside!” Kaetlyn shouted. She swung her front door open then slammed it closed when they got inside.

“Kaetlyn? What’s wrong?” Dad asked her while the couple caught their breath.

“Uh… Just a little bug problem.” She gave a weak smile through breaths.

The swarm phased through the walls. Dad jumped from his seat on the couch.

“Nevermind. Big bug problem!” She shouted, running upstairs with Reid.

“I told you they were undead bugs!” The boy yelled.

Kaetlyn ran into her room and came out with a lamp, chucking it at the swarm.

“Hard to believe that with your phobia!”

Reid got to the end of the hall while Kaetlyn threw more random objects at the swarm.

“It’s not a phobia! I just don’t like them!” He shouted defensively.

Dad came in with a broom, whacking whatever of the swarm he could. The next breath they took was a foul one. Stench filled the room.

“Eugh… stink bugs…” Dad tried not to puke.

A ghostly laugh echoed from the swarm. “My body is made up of all kinds of insects. You kill some, I collect more.”

“Huh, undead bugs… You were right.” Kaetlyn said peculiarly to her boyfriend.

The swarm gathered together to form the vague shape of a human, the mouth moving loosely to the words the ghost spoke. “Far from undead. These darlings are very much alive. I simply control them.” She flew closer to the teengagers, smiling, “Call me Swarm. It fits, don’t you think?”

Dad whacked Swarm with the broom gain. He hissed in fury and attacked him, losing the human-like form.

“Dad!” Kaetlyn exclaimed. The man ran outside, challenging the mass of bugs. He would rather them attack him than his daughter.

“Stay here.” Kaetlyn told Reid, rushing outside.

“Wait, what are you going to do?!” He asked worryingly, but she had already gotten Swarm’s attention, leading the ghost to chase her instead.

Reid rushed outside but didn’t follow her. Dad had sprinted after them.

This didn’t work out well for Kaetlyn. Dad wasn’t supposed to follow her.

She dipped into and alleyway, climbing over the fence wall and falling to the floor.

She got up in a defensive stance, Swarm buzzing around her.

“Kaetlyn!” She heard Dad call out. He luckily didn’t see her change direction.

Lunna hovered by the girl, waiting for her to transform.

Kaetlyn glanced around the fenced in yard. There were some potted plants by a shelf of gardening things.

“Moon Rise!” 

Swarm shot countless wasps and bees at Lune. The wolf yipped as she dodged. Thank goodness she didn’t have an allergy.

She took a rake lying on the ground and swatted the insects away. She actually managed to hit a few.

Swarm laughed, “You think that will work? A wooden pole will be my demise? Hilarious!”

Jumping back with a look of disgust when she couldn’t swat all the bees, Lune ran into the shelves of gardening supplies, objects hitting her head and falling to the ground. A can of pesticide slowly rolled passed her.

“Lightbulb!” She sung to herself. Lune took the can, jumped up, and sprayed it around her where the wasps and bees were buzzing around. She made sure to cover her nose and mouth with her other hand.

The bugs dropped like flies. It’d be funny if they actually were.

Swarm had her vague human form again, staring at what Lune had done.

“Disgrace!” She yelled, “You kill my darlings with bug spray? Bug spray! Of all things?!” 

If her wolf ears were real, they would have drooped in fear as Swarm grew bigger and bigger when calling more insects to her. She would need more bug spray…

“I see that your angry.” Lune spoke. She and Swarm stood there in silence for a bit. 

“...”

“...”

“I’ll just go.” The wolf pointed then walked away. Swarm buzzed and threw and arm of insects at her. Lune jumped over the fence once more and leapt to the roofs. She dodged a few bugs that flew after her.

Okay, so bug spray does the trick. She’s just going to need a lot of it. She doesn’t have her phone with her so she’ll need to head back to her house. Let’s hope Dad and Reid aren’t there. They might suspect something if they see Lune breaking in to get Kaetlyn’s phone.

To her luck, they weren’t home. Dad must be outside looking for her still.

Lune ran up to her room and took her phone, dialing Sam’s number. No, she doesn’t bring her phone  _ everywhere.  _ She’s not addicted… Yeah… Okay! Yes she’s just like every other teenager! She just forgot to take her phone with her…

“Kaetlyn, where are you?” Sam asked.

Lune interrupted her friends scolding, “Yeah, yeah. Look, Imma need a truck load of pesticide.”

Silence follows. The wolf jumped at the sound of something crashing and falling downstairs. She peeked out of her doorway to see Swarm ransacking the place. She slowly slid back into her room.

“Uh… Yeah, so how soon can you get it here?”

“Okay… What?!” Sam tried processing this strange request.

“Let’s just say there’s a ghost problem. You got money so I thought you could help?”

Sam sighed. Danny better be on his way to help otherwise this could go south.

“Okay, okay, I’ll... I’ll help.”

“Yay! Thank-”

A line of bugs ran into Lune’s hand, knocking the flip phone out and damaging it. The wolf spun around, shocked.

“Come on! Mom’s gonna kill me for that!” She sighed, “I’ll never get my old phone back…”

“Little brat!” Swarm hissed.

Lune jumped out of the window and brought the fight outside.

Swarm flew at the wolf as the mass of bugs she was. Lune had no time to react, but luckily, Danny Phantom swooped in with… ghost sheild powers?

He created a thin green platform with his arms and used it to block Swarm’s attack.

“Sense when could you do this?”

“I-I came across it accidentally once. I forgot I could do that until now, though.”

Lune facepalmed. Swarm hissed at them again -that’s what she does apparently- and started circling around them, engulfing them with insects.

“Use your green blocky thing again!” Lune ordered with fear in her tone.

“Blocky thing?”

Lune shook him. “Your blasty ghost rays at  _ the least!” _

That’s probably a good idea, actually. Danny used his ghost ray to blast a whole through swarm. She screeched as all her “darlings” were burnt to a crisp.

She turned her attention to the ghost boy. Lune advised him to run, or at least do something better than being stung.

Lune leapt to the roof, following Danny, but trying to stay in the area. While she dodged and he blocked and attacked, Lune picked up the sound of a vehicle driving closer to her street. It sounded big. A truck?

Lune gasp, “Keep her busy!”

“What?!”

A ball of insects flew into Lune, knocking her off the roof. Danny flew down to catch her.

“I can handle falling on my own, but thanks.” She spoke softer as she explained to Danny her plan. He nodded and followed her direction from before: Distracting Swarm.

Lune listened carefully for the truck. After pinpointing where it could be, she ran after it. 

She waved her arms to catch the driver’s attention. They listened to her and followed her with the truck of pesticide.

After getting everything ready, Danny had already noticed them and lire Swarm towards them.

“Might wanna get back.” Lune advised to the driver. And he did.

The heroes taunted Swarm, getting her to circle around them again, but this time at the roof of the truck, which had no indication of what it held.

“Ha! Whatever plan you had has obviously failed! Now get ready to feast, darlings!” Swarm’s voice started to sound like she had a screw or two loose.

“Feast? Do bugs eat people?”

“I don’t know what she’s talking about either.” 

Danny shot two ghost rays through the truck, bug spray leaking out. He shot a few more until the truck became swiss. 

Swarm screeched as her darlings died out, cursing at the heroes. Once they found an opening, they jumped away from the truck before their health became affected.

“Do you think she’s dead?” Lune asked.

“Well, she was a ghost. Technically she’s already dead.” Danny wore a smug look when the wolf tried specifying what she meant.

A high squeaky voice interrupted her stuttering.

They saw a cockroach scuttling up to them. Both of them jumped.

The voice seemed to be coming from the roach, but it was so small they couldn’t make out the mumbles.

Lune chuckled, “So  _ that’s  _ swarm? I thought you said she was a ghost.”

Danny took out his thermos and sucked up the roach. “She is. A ghost bug.”

“Ghost bug.” The wolf echoed. She smirked in defeat. So Reid was right.

The driver came up to them, asking about the truck, which still leaked bug spray. Kaetlyn would have to come up with so many excuses…

“Maybe we should both clean up?” Danny suggested.

“It’s probably be easier that way…”

They stared at the mess the mess of a truck.

“Probably.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Announcement! Wee woo wee woo!
> 
> I try to post every weekend, but life is... eck. I don't have as much time right now and I'm trying to find a way to make time. For now, though, chapters will be coming in without a schedule. Really, just whenever I manage to finish writing one.
> 
> Sorry!


	13. A Small Tear

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's been so long since I posted... This chapter is pretty long compared to previous ones so I hope that makes up for -what- about a month of no new chapters? It has to have been a few weeks at least...
> 
> Eh- Whatever. I just hope you enjoy reading!

Tucker sat at his computer, playing against Sam. He wouldn’t let her win this time, even if she had killed him countless times… No matter! He mashed the buttons on his keyboard, ducking behind some rubble and watching Sam’s avatar wonder around.

He watched her run behind a crumbling stone wall. Tucker’s avatar chased her, turning the corner to find no one.

“Huh?” 

A second later, the words “Game Over” appeared on the screen with a button for him to respawn or quit underneath.

He called Sam on the group chat. “How did you do that?!” He asked.

“I ran behind the wall. When you came, I ran around then shot you. That simple.” Sam’s smugness could be heard through the headset.

“I demand a rematch!”

“Suit yourself.”

For at least the next hour, Tucker would almost get Sam, but she would kill his avatar first. Even camping at spawn didn’t work, which Sam got irritated with either way.

Tucker growled when Sam killed his avatar merely seconds after respawning.

Sam got on the call. “Good game. I’m actually getting hungry so I’ll see you later. A salad sounds nice right about now.”

“Yeah, bye, Sam.” Then he hung up. He turned off his game and sat there, upset. He couldn’t even land a single shot, much less a kill.

He let his headphones hang off the tips of his fingers, not noticing a math fluttering into his room.

 

________________________________________________________

 

Kaetlyn held two movies in her hands, pondering which she should get. Getting these were actually cheaper than buying them online, so maybe she could get both?

“Ugh… Just pick one already!” Lunna impatiently told her from the girl’s hood.

“Hey, if you were in my situation, it would be a hard choice.”

“No. No it wouldn’t.” The kwami replied flatly, “Just pick your favorite!”

“Aghh… This one is a sequel and this one will be sending me to a whole other franchise. The sequel seemed interesting based on peoples’ reviews, but I don’t know if I’ll come across this new movie again.” Kaetlyn contemplated. Again, not new as in recently released. New as in recently discovered.

Rolling her eyes, the kwami flew out of her hood and took a movie from the girl’s hands, placing it back on the shelf. No one stood in their aisle anyway.

Kaetlyn sighed in annoyance. “Fine. You win.” She walked to the cash register and paid for the movie. She walked outside of the shop, finding a world of pixels instead of the road.

“Huh?” She walked around. The buildings seemed the same, but the sky and ground blurred together with black. The only way she could tell the difference was by the direction green lines in the form of a grid pattern.

“Uh… Kaetlyn?” Lunna pointed above her  head. The girl looked up. She didn’t see anything, but when looking back at her kwami, she saw white letters above her head.

“Wait- You-”

Lunna gasped, “Everyone has them!” 

Kaetlyn saw all of the confused people in the roads with white lettering above their heads too. It spelled out their names. So Kaetlyn must have one? Her first and last name if it followed the pattern of everyone else. Lunna had no last name, so the letters only said “Lunna”.

“Wait.” Lightbulb, “It’s like a video game.”

Lunna cocked her head in confusion.

“It’s like our usernames. So.. we’re stuck in a game?” Kaetlyn walked around, trying to figure all of this out. Could a ghost do this? Her phone rang. Sam called. She answered.

“Kaetlyn! Where are you?!”

“Uh… just walked out of the store. Got a new movie, but I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore.”

“Not- Not a good time for jokes. I just got a text from Reid with a video of someone out to get me. It’s not a ghost, but they aren’t human.”

“What?! Who?”

“Tucker. He looked different though... I think he got akumatized.” Anxiety oozed into their voices, each sentence getting more frantic.

“Why the heck are you calling me?! Call Danny Phantom! You guys work together!”

“What? How do you know about him?”

“Ehuhhh…” Haha… heh… “Hide and stay safe. Okay byyyyyye~” Kaetlyn hung up, pinching the bridge of her nose. She took a deep breath in. Lunna worried for her miraculous holder’s sanity.

“An akuma???!!??  _ Again _ ?!!??”

“I guess this is a job for Lune.”

“Yeah, once she learns to bring her Fenton Thermos everywhere.” Kaetlyn retorted, “Just a quick trip to the store. That’s it! I just wanted some discount items, but noooo.” She sighed. She currently hid behind a building where no one can see her. “Just- Moon Rise. Let’s get this over with.”

Lune hurried to her house, which had been put into a video game as well. The username luckily changed during transformation. It must be like switching accounts. You’re the same person, but with two different logins. So the computer would recognize you as different people. Or console, whichever you prefer.

She snuck in through the window and took the thermos from its drawer. It’s been a while since she’s used these other gadgets. The earphones might help? The belt: She couldn’t think of a reason it could come in handy. Tucker had been akumatized. The earphones could at least let her communicate with Danny if he showed up to help.

“Lune, you there?”

Huh, speaking of the ghost… Lune put in an earphone and said, “Yeah. Where are you?”

“I’m at Sam Manson’s house. The akuma running around seems to be after her.” He tried making it sound like they  _ weren’t  _ his childhood friends.

“I’ll be on my way. I don’t know why Tucker is mad at Sam, but we should get this over with quickly.” Lune put the other earphone in and jumped on the windowsill.

“How do you know their names?”

“Uhm… You told me when we ran into Funhouse. Remember?”

When he did and hung up, Lune leapt from rooftop to rooftop to Sam’s place. She got a little turned around with the different scenery, but she eventually found the building with Sam’s bedroom window shattered.

She peeked inside, seeing glass shards all over the floor with the furniture slightly knocked out of place. No matter how many times she comes here, she couldn’t get over that their goth friend had such a luxurious bedroom.

Lune heard something like a laser charging up. She whipped her head to the sound to see a large creature holding a gun and wearing armour similar to Tucker’s avatar. Wait- Tucker?!

The gun fired, shooting Lune right in the heart. She fell back, struggling to breath. The pain spread from the rest of her body, then she closed her eyes, no matter how much she wanted to keep them open.

“Ha! That’s another point to me! Pretty soon I’ll beat my highscore, and I’ll be able to finally beat Sam!” The akumatized Tucker explained with a constant growl to his voice. His skin turned a pale grey with long pointed ears and big facial features; Almost like a goblin. His armour turned from its original orange to an almost black purple with gold details.

He readied his laser gun again, letting it charge before an 8-bit jingle filled the room.

A circle appeared on the floor, light shooting up from it. Lune appeared in the circle to her own surprise. When the light faded away and the circle disappeared, Tucker shot her again.

She fell back, her body flashing away before the light and jingle appeared again. 

“A spawn kill?! That’s just cheap.” Lune exclaimed furiously, crossing her arms. 

“It’s not like you’ll actually die.” He spat.

“Well, I don’t like it either way.”

“Oh boo hoo.” Tucker raised his gun, firing it again. This time, Lune leapt out of the way. The laser didn’t even leave a burn mark on the wall, much less a whole. They might as well have been sucked into a video game, except when you die, you respawn.

“Danny, I’m here!” Lune called through the earphones. She dodged another laser blast before running up to Tucker, punching him in the face. She silently apologized, but it’s what she had to do to leave the room.

She ran down the hall, approaching the steps when something grabbed her by her ankle and pulled her down. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw her face about to hit the stairs, but she phased through and ended up in what seemed to be the basement. Danny Phantom had pulled her down. Sam and her parents were hiding here.

“Won’t he easily find us here?”

“It’s better than standing in the open.”

Lune paused for a moment. “Yeah. You have a point…. So Tucker has turned into an akuma.”

“What do you think happened?” Danny turned back to the Mansons. “Sam?”

“If I had to guess, he might have gotten mad when we were playing online together.”

The wolf shrugged. “Jeez, talk about rage quitting, but that would explain why the world is very video-game like.”  _ And how Tucker is wearing his avatars suit, but what’s with the goblin look? _

“Where do you think the moth is hiding?” Danny asked.

Lune pondered this, trying to recall any details about him. “He only had his laser gun and armour.”

Danny sighed. He started pacing as he figured out what they should do. The room heard Tucker outside. He stomped over broken furniture, keeping an eye out for anyone in the building.

“Stay here.” The heroes told the family in unison. Danny took Lune by the wrist and turned intangible so they could fight without their hiding spot being revealed.

“Unless you have enough money to pay for property damages, I suggest you stop breaking stuff.” Danny said to the villain.

“The Mansons are rich, so trust me when I say you should take his advice.” Lune added.

“You losers get out of my way!” Tucker shot a laser beam at them. Danny turned intangible and Lune used a nearby dining chair as a shield, leaving wood chips too scatter around her.

“Tch. Hypocrite.” Tucker  murmured.

“Come on, Tuck, snap out of it!” Danny tried to bring him to his senses. Lune knew it wouldn’t work. Maybe it would, but Hawk Moth wouldn’t allow it.

Lune jumped at Tucker, trying to take his gun away. The villain pushed her off of him and she flew back into Danny. He ran out of the building, and the heroes chased him. They didn’t see him in the road or hear any civilians scream. It became too silent.

They let their guard down, relaxing their fighting position. They then jumped when bright yellow walls shot up from the ground, tripping them in a room with a black gate behind them.

“I’ll see what’s above.” Danny said, his feet turning into a tail so he could fly over the walls, but some invisible barrier shocked him and he fell back to the grey ground. Lune helped him up, then she looked around for anything that might help them.

“Oh, look. A key.” Lune walked up to a golden key on the ground. She picked it up and examined it, then turned to the gate. She walked up to the gate, but there was no lock. Instead, the gate rose on its own. She looked at the key then at Danny. He shrugged, not any more sure than her.

They walked through the gate, finding another yellow room with a golden sword lying on the ground. This time, Danny walked up and took it. It unsettled Lune that a weapon would be given to them. As long as there weren’t a bunch of health potions lying around, maybe they stood a chance against whatever they had to fight.

“Lead the way.” Lune said. Danny gave her a look before following her orders anyway. They walked out of the two yellow rooms and down the hall into and even larger hallway with green walls. To their left was an orange room, and to their right they saw what might be a giant deep blue maze. Danny settled for the simpler option and went into the green room. As soon as they popped their heads around the corner, a giant yellow dragon chased after them.

They both screamed and bolted away. Lune’s heart skipped a beat and her body tingled with fear. They ran into the blue maze and hid behind a corner, waiting for the dragon to pass.

“What was that?!” Danny hissed.

“A deadly dragon come to eat us whole obviously!” Lune hissed back.

As they caught their breath, they didn’t hear the dragon run after them. Lune popped her head out and saw nothing but the maze walls around them. She cautiously walked out. The complete silence unsettled her.

“I-... I think we’re clear.” The wolf said. Danny came out with his ghost tail, slowly flying around the corners to check for the dragon.

“Is it still back in the room?”

Lune shrugged, “I mean… I didn’t hear it run by us.”

Confused, they returned to the room, the dragon gone and a black key lying on the floor. Lune bent down to pick it up, but it shocked her and she recoiled. Danny came to pick it up, his tail turning into a pair of legs. When he grabbed the key, he flinched at the shock from it and dropped his sword. Lune picked it up for him, but it just shocked her.

“Oh  _ come on _ !” 

Danny laughed, then replied with, “They key shocked me, so I don’t think it’s just you.”

“Whatever game this is, I don’t like the rules.” Lune crossed her arms, eyebrows furrowed.

“Maybe the maze has something.” Danny took Lune’s wrist and flew them through the maze. He would just phase through the walls, but something prevented him from doing so. Intangibility wouldn’t work in wherever they were.

They worked their way through the maze, coming across a large hallway. Danny took the lead and eventually ended up in a room with black walls and another gate.

“I think this is where the key comes in handy.” Lune said as they landed on the floor. Danny walked up to the gate. With the key in hand, the door opened on its own. They walked into and orange room. Nothing interesting so far. They walked into the next room, getting jumpscared by the roar of another yellow dragon. It didn’t matter if it was the same one from before. Lune and Danny were gone, running back into the maze. This time, the dragon chased them. The adrenaline somehow felt worse than when fighting ghosts or akumas. 

No matter how fast they ran, or even flew, the dragon closed in one them. Lune skidded around an oncoming corner. Danny, caught off guard, tried following her. But he missed the corner and ended up being too slow. The dragon opened its mouth and swallowed him whole.

Lune gasped in horror, her eyes wide and body frozen. The sound of the same 8-bit jingle when she had respawned played and the walls around her vanished with a pixel effect. The dragon soon followed, leaving Danny covered in dragon saliva. His face twisted in disgust, and Lune pinched her nose from the smell.

“Game over. And you didn’t even get the chalice.” Tucker sighed, hovering in the air above them. He pointed his pointer finger in the air. “One life gone. You have two left. Let’s hope you get to the final boss before then. I’ve been itching for a fight.”

“Why don’t we just fight you now?” Lune asked, determined.

“That’d destroy the point in the game. You can’t even cheat your way. There’s absolutely no glitches! No easter eggs, no shortcuts, just the game and the player.”

“Tch.”

“Your game sounds more boring than Mr. Lancer giving us a history lesson.”

Lune looked back at Danny Phantom. She stared at him, trying to figure out how he knew about Lancer. She felt like she would’ve noticed a white haired ghost boy in her classes. He glanced at her and flinched, realizing he slipped up. But if Tucker, Sam, and Reid worked with him, is that how they met? At school? Then why hasn’t Kaetlyn seen him before…?

“At least I’m better at playing it than you!” Tucker shouted, charging up his laser gun. When he fired, the world around the heroes changed. Instead of the road, they stood in a large and open lobby with a giant staircase leading upstairs and a chandelier hanging from the tall ceiling. The leather chairs and plush couches seemed expensive along with the large carpets on the shiny wooden flooring.

“I recognize this place…” Lune thought aloud. Danny walked around, trying to make sense of it.

A tennis ball bounced and rolled to Lune’s feet, breaking her thoughts. Both heroes looked at the tennis ball, then back up at each other. They stared down the hallway it rolled from to see nothing but rooms. They must be in a hotel of sorts?

They walked down the hall, Danny leading the way. Then shortly came across a crossroads, two girls standing on the other end of the hall around the corner. They had the same light brown hair, the same short blue dress, white stockings, shoes. They held hands, not saying a word. Something definitely seemed off.

“Uh… hi…” Danny waved nervously. The girls turned around and walked into a red elevator. When the ghost boy went to follow them, Lune took his shoulder and pulled him down the hallway, away from the elevator.

“What are you doing? Maybe they can help.”

“I know where we are.” She stated, eyes wide and heartbeat rising.

“How?”

“Just...We need to get out of here.” Lune gasped when she heard something of whispers echo. Danny heard it too, so it wasn’t in her head. Without looking, she dipped into the first door she past and hid.

“How are we supposed to beat this game?” Danny asked, anxiety rising.

“It’s not a game! Well, it is, but- but its source isn’t.” She inhaled, heald her breath, then exhaled slowly as she tried to calm her nerves. “Whatever Tucker did, what we’re in right now is his simulation in the form of a game.  _ But  _ where this hotel comes from  _ isn’t  _ a game, It’s a-”

The sound of running water cut her off. Lune noticed the green walls painted in the room. They were in a bathroom, and the sink was running. 

“Room 237. Oh no… no no no…” She internally screamed, trying to keep a level head. She would keep Danny from approaching the sink, but he had already turned off the faucet, then stared into the mirror. He saw something that froze him, terrified. Lune came up to drag him away, but saw what he saw. It was their reflection, but with pointed ears, fangs, and red eyes.

“Funhouse?!” They exclaimed in sync. The ghost reached out to grab them, but they almost fell dodging and ran out of the room and down the hall. They aimed for the main doors, but Skulker blocked their path. He grinned and they skidded trying to run the other way. Other ghosts they have ran into popped up, chasing after them or jumpscaring them. 

“How did they end up in the game?!” Danny exclaimed.

Just then, Tucker’s voice echoed in the building, “Don’t worry! They’re all NPC’s so the real ones are still out there.”

“Great…” Lune murmured.

“That doesn’t mean they’re any less deadly~” Tucker practically sang, then laughed devilishly as his voice faded. So his akumatized version had a thing for the creepy factor. Spooky.

“Watch out!” Lune ducked, pulling Danny to the ground so they dodged the net Skulker had shot at them. Danny’s feet turned into a tail and he flew them through the halls. Intangibility was still useless. Lune thought they would out run Skulker, but Shadow flew in front of them, popping out from the ceiling.

The heroes shouted. Danny recoiled and turned the corner. At the end Lune saw a female ghost with fiery blue hair and tight black clothing. She remembered Tucker sending her a music video of a singer called Ember McLain, who looked exactly like the ghost.

Ember took the pick between her fingers and strummed her purple electric guitar with blue flames painted on. The chord hurt Lune’s ears. Is this how people felt when hearing her howl? The sound was so strong that Danny and the wolf flew backwards and into the wall. They heard what sounded like a laser charging and turned to see Skulker aiming his gloved arm at them.

Danny gasped and flew away, but Lune didn’t have time to get up. Skulker shot a glowing green net from his glove, capturing her into a tiny ball she couldn’t escape. In front of her appeared two hearts. One flashed then disappeared, meaning she had lost a life. So she and Danny shared lives?! She couldn’t warn him, he had already gotten lost in the maze of hallways, avoiding all the ghosts he ran into.

When running into Fright Night, he blasted his ghost ray. It hit the enemy and he flashed before disappearing. Danny stared blankly before blinking and speaking to himself, “Okay… I should have tried that sooner…”

Hearing Walker, a completely white ghost who thinks he owns the Ghost Zone, Danny shot a few ghost rays then flew away, but he stopped short when Johnny 13 drove his motorcycle in front of him, blocking the ghost boy’s path. Kitty got off the motorcycle and punched Danny in the face, sending him flying back. Penelope Spectra grabbed him so he couldn’t move. Box ghost hovered in front of him, boxes floating around him. He sent all the boxes flying at Danny, burying him. Silence followed.

The ghosts froze in place, unresponsive. Right above the mountains of boxes, one heart appeared. It started to flash, then eventually vanish. A dark and gloomy chime sounded throughout the hotel. The words “GAME OVER” took the spot of the heart.

The walls broke away with the same pixel effect from the first game, the NPC ghosts followed. The net around Lune disappeared and she ran up to the boxes, which pixelated away as she approached it. Danny sat up, his hand on his head. His whole body ached.

Tucker flew down from the sky, seemingly coming from nowhere. He planted his feet and the ground, his arms crossed.

“You two are bad at games, jeez!” He mocked them.

“You never said we shared lives!” Lune shouted.

“Should have read the instructions.”

“What intructions?!” Danny felt just as annoyed as the wolf.

Tucker rolled his eyes. He snapped his fingers and a holographic screen appeared in front of each of their faces. It looked like a title screen. “LEVEL SELECT” “INSTRUCTIONS” and “QUIT” were displayed.

“What does quitting do?” Danny asked slowly, afraid of the answer. Lune scanned the instructions.

Tucker’s fangs made his grin look scarier. “It means you, Danny Phantom, will  _ never  _ show your face in Amity again. And if you do, you’d wish the game ended a long time ago...” He said the last part rather threateningly.

Lune tried snapping her fingers, and the screen disappeared. Then she followed by asking, “And what about me...?”

A moth outline appeared over his eyes for a few seconds, then disappeared. “If you quit, you return to France and return your broken miraculous. Not like it was useful. Can’t even take care of a bracelet.”

Lune tried to control her expressions, spinning her bracelet and counting the four jewels. How would she even return to France? And what about her parents? She and Danny flinched when Tucker started walking up to them, his gun charging.

“You lost all three lives, but I’m having so much fun, so-” He snapped his fingers. A heart flashed above Lune and Danny’s head. A happy chime played as the hearts steadied. “A life  _ each.  _ I wouldn’t call it generous. You’ll need it in this final level.” Tucker pointed his gun in the air, shooting. The blast hit the sky and the world around them changed with a pixel effect. They ended up on a wide road with a giant gate in front of them, leading to a large city filled with skyscrapers.

Beside Danny stood a motorcycle matching the colors of his suit. Lune stood beside a silver race car with wavy purple designs on the hood. There were plenty of empty cars around, but she couldn’t open the doors to any of them.

“Danny? Lune?!” They whipped around to see Sam, confused and wearing the same shocked expression as them.

“Wait- Sam? How did you get here?!” Danny asked.

“I don’t know. I was just brought here!”

Tucker suddenly intervened. Lune jumped when she heard him speak. “What do you think I was doing while you played the first two levels?  _ Not  _ looking for Sam?” He continued, “Same rules apply to all three of you. One life, one chance. You heroes never show up again if you lose. And you  _ will  _ lose .”

“So...what’s this level?” Lune asked, glancing back at the vehicles.

“A racing game. First to the end wins. There’s no second or third. Only first place.”

Before Sam could ask what she would ride, Tucker pointed out the large black monster truck behind her.

“Cooooool!” She exclaimed in awe.

“What?! Why does  _ she  _ get the cool stuff! I get a basic car!”

“We can’t even drive!” Danny added.

“Then you’ll have to learn.” The villain jogged to his spot at the starting line. Reluctantly, Danny and Lune got onto their vehicles. Sam already had the monster truck running, the engine growling. Lune copied what she saw from movies and started the car, fastening her seatbelt. She didn’t trust herself one bit with this.

The lights above the starting line beep as the red light lit up.

Danny put on his full face white biker helmet and swiped the window over his eyes.

Another beep as the yellow light lit up.

 Lune looked over to Tucker, who didn’t ride anything.

The last beep sounded longer when the red light lit up.

Everyone hit the gas and raced forward. Tucker’s shoes turned into rocket boots and he zipped by all of them, laughing like a maniac.

“What the heck?!” Lune exclaimed.

“Hey! I can hear you!” Sam exclaimed with cheer.

“I think there’s a speaker system set up.” Danny suggested.

“Never knew that, Sherlock. Thanks.” Lune replied sarcastically. She saw the unusable cars driving into spiked walls that popped up from the bridge. They must be more NPC’s.

“Guys… Guys!” Lune shouted. “No no no nonononono!” She hit the breaks the turned the steering wheel, skidding in a serpentine motion as she tried avoiding the walls. Danny easily dipped out of the way on his motorcycle while Sam frantically pushed buttons. The wheels rose and she drove right over them.

“This cheater…” Lune growled.

“We’ll have to stop him somehow. Can this thing fly?” Danny asked, trying to find any extra buttons or switches on his vehicle. 

“Uhm, Danny.” Sam began.

“Yeah?”

“ _ You  _ can fly.”

A pause. Lune would be disappointed if the spiked walls and flying NPC vehicles didn’t distract her.

Keeping his hands tightly gripped onto the handles, the ghost boy lifted from his seat as he started to fly. The motorcycle started to pick up with him.

Either the trio were catching up, for Tucker slowed down. He back up tobe at Danny’s side.

“Hey, you cheat! That’s against the rules!”

“You can fly too!” Danny retorted.

“Because they are my vehicle!” Tucker got in front of Danny and aimed his rocket boots at the handles.

From the heat, Danny’s hands recoiled so he could blow them off, but the motorcycle stopped flying and fell to the ground.

Lune saw it falling from the sky and swerved to dodge. It barely missed her as she drive off the bridge and entered a city. Judging my the Statue of Liberty, it must be a replica of New York

“Watch it!” She spat.

“Don’t blame me! Blame-”

Tucker took Danny’s arms and spun in circles, letting go after a few seconds and letting Danny be flown right into a building. The video game logic helped when his helmet at kept his brains safe, but that was his life. Danny had ran out of hearts. 

“Looks like it’s up to girl power, Sam.” 

“I’ve beaten Tucker and Danny so many times. This’ll be a piece of cake.”

Did she mean Fenton or Phantom? Hm… Lune assumed she meant Danny Fenton.

Lune heard Sam’s scream from the speaker system. When asking frantically what’s wrong, the goth replied with, “Tucker! He’s firing at me!”

Sam used the buttons she learned to raise and lower the truck, trying to dodge. She crushed a few cars while doing so. The goth let out a yip when Tucker shattered the back window and the laser broke through the passenger’s side of the front window.

Lune scowled. The only reason he brought Sam here was to torment her! Take revenge!

She couldn’t stop her car, there were too many vehicles in the race that wouldn’t waste a second to run her over.

“Eh- Sam! Can you drive in front if me?”

“If Tucker stopped shooting at me!”

“Hit the gas and I’ll get him off of you!”

Thanks to the oversized monster truck, Sam was able to roll over whatever could’ve gotten in her way otherwise when speeding up. Now she kept ducking and weaving with Lune driving right behind. It would be tricky, but if the wolf timed it right, all might go well.

“If your rearview mirror still in tact?” Lune asked with a strong tone.

While Sam skidded to turn the sharp corner, she confirmed, “Y-yeah!”

Lune waited until she turned the corner to add, “This is going to involve a lot of trust!”

Tucker stopped shooting to dodge a falling building. Lune tested the limits of her vehicle as she sped to drive under it before it hit the road. She let out a sigh of relief as she watched the red pointer on the speed dial slowly go back down.

“Keep an eye on the mirror. Right before you get hit, duck down.”

“Hit? Hit with what?!”

Lune pulled out a pair of sunglasses from her inventory -With a snap of the finger, the game apparently had one- and casually answered, “My howl of course.”

Sam gulped, sweat dripping down her forehead. With skyscrapers falling and the road with a cliff at the end approaching, this would be a major risk. 

“I’m logging off the chat for your safety. I suggest you go with your instincts.” Lune then pressed a button. Sam couldn’t hear her and she couldn’t hear Sam. As her friend, Lune trusted the goth more than anything. She played a lot of games and was better than any boy. If anyone would know how to beat a game, Sam would figure out how.

But Sam trusted Kaetlyn, not Lune. That’s the part she worried about the most. One moment of hesitation and Sam could be injured. It’s technically a video game, but Lune didn’t want to risk anything.

…….. Look, Danny isn’t in this scene right now. Let’s just pretend he’s alright, alright? Alright.

Lune opened the car door on her side, leaning out. Her head jerked back when a random car sped by, ripping the door off. She looked behind her to make sure no more cars came. They all must have been crushed at some point, because there were none behind her.

The wolf turned back to Tucker. “Midnight Howl.” Her senses heightened. Power surged through her, gathering at her throat. She saw the end of the road approach in her peripheral vision. She could just imagine Sam yelling at her to do something already.

When Tucker started to fire another shot, Lune decided it'd be now or never. She opened her mouth, a deafening howl escaped. It shattered the glass around her, her windows especially. Tucker pressed his palms to his goblin-like ear and wavered on his rocket boots. 

Sam pressed the button to lower her wheels to be flat on the ground, her truck with it. Lune smirked, relieved her friend made it, but new she would the whole time.

The howl messed with whatever sensitive circuits were in Tucker’s boots. They started to fail and he couldn’t keep a steady direction. He ended up being flung into one of the cars that were now rubble from the chaos of the racetrack.

Lune logged back into the chat, yelling with Sam in victory. Sam hit the brakes to keep from driving off the road and fall into the ravine. The only thing is, she was going to fast. A sudden stop would cause severe damage thanks to the second law of motion, and there wasn’t enough spare road to offer enough time to slow down.

“Sam!” Lune shouted, looking for any buttons that could stop the monster truck. A grappling hook, hover wheels, a magnet, something!!!

Lune saw the driver’s door open, and she knew what Sam planned on doing. Heartbeat rising, the heroine hit the gas to be a few feet behind the door.

“What your doing is insane!” The wolf yelled.

“Suggest something else then!”

Lune glanced at the road, then back at her friend. Before another word could be said, Sam let go of the handle at the top of the doorway. Lune shifted gears and turned her steering wheel to a hard left, making the passenger’s seat face Same.

In one swift motion, Lune flung the door opened and grabbed Sam’s arm as she flew in. She turned some more until the front of the car faced the fallen city. Her wheels had trouble gripping onto the road as she hit the gas pedal as hard as possible. 

They were at the edge of the cliff. The back wheels clipped off and hung over the edge. The girls froze as the car teetered.

“Lean forwards! Lean forwards!” Lune hissed in a hushed voice, as if talking too loud would push them backwards.

As they tried leaning forwards, the car only tipped back. They began to scream their heads off before something caught them. Lune still shook, adrenaline having trouble going away.

Danny Phantom had caught them. He still had his helmet on.

“How did you get here?” Sam asked as he let both girls safely onto the floor.

“Whatever happened to Tucker back there, the game technically stopped when you beat him.” He explained, taking off his helmet. 

“I gotta say, you should practice your timing.” Lune advised, trying not to giggle when Sam started fixing Danny’s helmet hair.

The wolf suddenly remembered she had a job. “Wait- Tucker! We have to get his akuma!”

Lune rushed off, not feeling like driving after the fiasco. Not like she could anyway.

She finally found Tucker in his black armour; The rocket boots dead. Nothing really looked like it would hold an akuma. Hm… except for this laser gun. Lune smashed it on the ground, a moth fluttering out. She sucked it up with the Fenton Thermos, then black-purple smoke de-transformed Tucker into his usual yellow long sleeved shirt and military green pants.

The world pixelated away, leaving the group in a random part of Amity. Wherever they moved in the game, they moved in real life.

Lune heard her miraculous beep as Danny and Sam came running towards her.

“Danny, can you take him home?” She showed her bracelet, he understood and did as asked. Sam just assured the heroes she’d be fine going home on her own.

Lune nodded and rushed back home, taking a few different turns incase anyone might see her. She de-transformed a few blocks down, Lunna gently falling into her cupped hands.

“I’ll get you some food when we get home.” Kaetlyn said, “We really should find you something else to eat. Jerky just smells. No way am I bringing it with us.”

“But jerky is so gooood…” Lunna whined, too tired and hungry to be bark back.

Kaetlyn got home and reassured her parents she was okay and was nowhere near whatever the villain was this time. In fact, she was more confused trying to find her way home with the world looking so different.

“If anything, I’m just  _ really _ hungry.” The girl said, opening up the fridge for some beef jerky.

“We have real food, love.” Mom said, still trying to calm down after the attack.

“It’s just a snack. What do we have though?”

 

________________________________________________________

 

As the Shire’s slept the night away, a small tear appeared on the wall behind a thermos. The gadget stood on the shelf built into Kaetlyn Shire’s bed. A ghostly green hand reached out, its fingers wrapping around the metal.

As soon as it grabbed hold of the thermos, a second hands snatched its wrist. Whoever was attached to the hand gasped in surprise.

Kaetlyn’s hazel eyes glared at the hand, shocked herself. The tear was just big enough for her to see a woman’s figure, but without any light, she couldn’t make out any more features than that.

The girl and woman played tug-of-war with the thermos, Lune kneeling on her pillow as she tried to get a better grip.

Eventually, the woman had won, pulling the thermos into the tear and disappearing. Kaetlyn’s spine tingled as she almost fell into the shelf. She caught herself with her arm, but winced as the other objects fell over and created a loud enough racket to wake her parents.

Luckily, or maybe not as luckily, only Lunna woke up.

The kwami yawned as she asked, “What are you doing?”

“Eh… Nothing. I thought I saw a bug. Bugs I can handle, spiders I can’t.”

Too tired to care, Lunna’s head fell back onto the cushiony pillow she slept on.

With a sigh of relief, Kaetlyn turned over and tried going back to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I referenced a movie throughout the chapter. Can you guess what it is?
> 
> (Hint: The games Danny and Lune played are from the movie)


	14. Food Fight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for not posting in so long. This chapter took longer than I hoped, but I did my best with the time given to me so I hope you like it!

The ghost woman snarled, about to scream in anger before stopping herself. She took a deep breath, then looked at her options. Now would be the perfect time to hunt down that Phantom kid…

She pointed at a spot in the void, a rip appearing. She flew to it and stretched it open to look into Hawk Moth’s lair. His white butterflies rested on the ground. 

Impatiently, she created more ovaler tears that gave her access to different rooms in his mansion. The woman knew of his real face, she knew the people in his residence, but they didn’t know of her.

If she were alive, beads of sweat would be dripping down her forehead. When the void started to feel smaller, suffocating almost, she closed all of the tears. 

“Desiree.” She called. The genie emerged from the shadows. She bowed before the woman.

“Find my next target.” She ordered, then created a tear to Amity Park.

“As you wish.”

She waited for Desiree to rise and fly through the tear before closing it. She then created a much smaller one only big enough for a certain kwami to fly through.

Lunna tried to keep from yawning. She had been woken in the middle of the night. “Mistress?”

Staring hard at nothing, she claimed with a firm tone, “You know who that Phantom kid is.”

Lunna’s eyes widened. “I...I-”

“You’ll sit and watch.”

She lowered her head, fearful of whatever is to come.

 

\-------------------------------------------

 

At first he thought she was only late, but when Tucker said he hadn’t seen her in class, Reid started to worry.

“Is she sick?”

“How am I supposed to know? I’m not her boyfriend!” Tucker got defensive. No one could blame him, though. Reid was on the verge of losing his temper.

“Relax, Reid. Maybe she had a dentist appointment or something.” Sam acted much more calm. Being the only girl with a pair of hysterical boys,  _ someone  _ had to keep a level head.

“I don’t think that lasts for three class periods!” Reid snapped. He knew Kaetlyn has been stressed recently, but she hasn’t replied to his texts or Sam’s after he had begged and begged the goth for help.

“I can’t see why you’re so upset about it. You’ve never acted this concerned before.” 

Reid turned to Sam, “I didn’t have to worry about ghosts before.  _ Or  _ akumas! Now both could attack at once!”

“Danny could easily take the ghost.” She motioned towards the boy as he joined the group. Being new to the topic, Tucker had to fill him in.

“What about the akuma?”

“Lune could handle it.”

Reid scowled. If Kaetlyn was gone, how would Lune help?

“If you’re that worried, go check on her after school.”

And as if the school deemed their conversation over, the bell rang in perfect timing with Sam’s words. She headed to class first. Tucker was happy to leave before things escalated. 

“I’ll keep an eye out for ghosts if it helps.” Danny offered. Reid could hear sarcasm buried under his words, but he still nodded. If the ghost boy didn’t, he would at least pretend he did.

  
  


______________________________________________________________

 

She would call out the kwami’s name if no one was around, but when you aimlessly wondered random parts of town, you were bound to run into someone. As soon as Kaetlyn had woken up earlier in the morning, she quickly noticed she couldn’t find Lunna. She checked her room, then the whole house, then the neighborhood…

There’s no way she could have made it through a day of school without fidgeting and stressing over the fact Lunna had vanished. The girl knew she had left the kwami before, but she thought they were over that. Maybe Lunna got tired of her? Had she done something to annoy her? Wouldn’t she have taken back the miraculous if that were the case? Then there was that woman last night...

Kaetlyn didn’t have time for this! Or maybe she  _ needed  _ to have time? Everything happened within the same night. There’s no  _ way  _ it’s a coincidence, right? Right???

Kaetlyn sighed in defeat. Whatever hope she grasped onto before felt like she only kidded herself. If she went to school the teachers might not notice. Her friend might… she couldn’t focus enough to come up with more silly excuses. Finding a place to hangout until school ended would be her best bet. Too bad she didn’t have enough money for a theatre ticket.

Going home wouldn’t work. Her mother didn’t work today and drove back home from the grocery store. She felt she had gotten a lot done today, but even when not having to work, she had to work. The difference being where she did her job.

First she had to arrive home, then unload the car, then put the groceries away, then reload the dishwasher, then cook, then countless other tasks.

What she didn’t expect she had to deal with was spotting her daughter wandering around instead of being at school. Kaetlyn never bothered memorizing the routes her parents took to drive places. She knew where to go and the many ways to get there, there was no point. 

The girl didn’t notice the car and kept walking. The only thing she worried about was Lunna, nothing else could bother her.

Her mother thought otherwise. Kaetlyn would have more to worry about. The woman’s grip on the steering wheel. A fire lit in her eyes. What on earth could her child be doing? What was  _ so  _ important Kaetlyn just  _ had  _ to skip class?

Desiree had been watching from the distance. She finally decided to open the thermos in her hands and release the purple moth. It did as planned and fluttered into the woman’s stud earrings. With Hawk Moth off duty for the time being, Desiree took the initiative to pop her head through the car window.

“My name is not important, but what  _ is  _ important is teaching your daughter a lesson. How would Food Fight suffice as you villain name?”

The woman’s scowl grew, tunnel vision on her daughter. “It will have to do…” She growled as dark purple engulfed her.

______________________________________________________________

 

They just didn’t understand. They didn’t. They couldn’t! He had a right to be so worried over his girlfriend. If only Kaetlyn knew about Danny’s identity. If only things weren’t so complex. If he could turn back time and made sure everything played out the _ right way,  _ he would.

He sat at the bench outside. Lunch took place out of the cafeteria today. His friends were a little worried for his mental health, but he was more than a little worried over his girlfriend. It still felt strange to call her that…

“Reid, relax.” Sam told him with a firm tone.

He huffed, letting his shoulders slack and unclenching his jaw. Kaetlyn wasn’t sick the day before, she seemed completely fine other than hints of stress. There has been no sign of an akuma, but still…

Sam opened her mouth to take of bite of her grass sandwich as her friends kept calling it -It wasn’t but she couldn’t change their minds. Instead, it flew right out of her hand. She looked back at the guys who watched their food fly in the same direction. Apples rolled on the floor, slices of sandwich meat and bread zipped above the students’ heads, it all gathered somewhere deeper in town. It formed this large monster of food, squashing cars and light posts as it stomped through the roads. The monster’s whole upper body towered over the buildings.

“Wait, where did Reid go?”

Sam turned her head to Tucker’s words. The seat across from him -where Reid should be sitting- was left empty. Danny had mysteriously disappeared as well.

The two left behind ran after the others. It’s obvious where the boys went. One had the responsibility of keeping Amity safe and the other is so paranoid about his girlfriend he would jump in at the slightest sign of danger.

On the monster’s side of town, Kaetlyn hid in one of the buildings with other terrified civilians. The giant’s deep and grumbling voice called out her name. Even if it sounded like her mother lecturing her, which technically it was, her heart still raced and adrenaline took over.

“I leave for grocery shopping,” The giant growled, it’s footsteps of milk cartons and frozen meat shaking the earth, “and I find you skipping school?!”

_ I’msorryI’msorryI’msorryI’msorry!!!  _ What else was she supposed to do without her kwami??! Sit in math and hope she just came back? What if situations like  _ this  _ came up?

A green ghost ray shot through the giant. It left a gaping whole, but vegetables filled it with no problem.

“Why don’t you fee-fi-fo-fum your way outta here?” Danny Phantom’s voice echoed through the empty streets.

“You’re not a part of this conversation!” The giant swung its massive arm at the ghost boy. Being fast wouldn’t be the problem. Being fast enough to move out of the way would be.

“Do your conversations  _ usually  _ end up in a dangerous game if food fight?”

“That  _ is _ my name!” The giant roared, throwing a punch only for its fist of fruits to break through the brick wall of a two-story building. No more than a large hole with crumbling stone and dust. Not the worst Kaetlyn has seen, but without Ladybug it would certainly take longer to repair. Unless that woman from last night had something to do with fixing the damages from the previous akumas in amity.

Kaetlyn shoved past all of the people crowding the small store. She swung the front door open and shouted, “Don’t hurt her! That’s my mom you’re fighting!”

So that’s where the girl has been? Shopping while the rest of them wrote papers? She could have at least bought Danny a new rocket model.

He turned his head from Kaetlyn and back to the enemy. Danny had no time to avoid the mass of fish, cereal, fruits, and countless other products that rammed into him and left him in the dent of a crumbling stone wall.

So Food Fight was Kaetlyn’s akumatized mother. Duly noted. And her attacks hurt. Also noted.

Danny stood up, the world a little blurred after that last hit. He managed to stay on his took legs, and his eyes were well enough to see Reid rushing right into battle field. Where on earth did he come from?!

The ghost yelled at him to get out of the way, but that boy was too stubborn. He had his sights set on Kaetlyn. Reid ran straight for her, his hands on her shoulders to pull her back into the building.

Through a frantic and confused questioning, the couple managed to calm down enough to start communicating like normal human beings.

“Why weren’t you at school?!”

“I-I lost something important to me.” Kaetlyn stuttered while trying to find a sensible excuse.

“You didn’t think to at least text me?”

“I thought you would be fine not knowing. I didn’t think you would freak!”

The ground rumbled, followed by a low and sudden pop. Danny flew right into the glass window and caused the couple to jump. He peeled himself off of the glass and shoot his scrambled brains back into place. He then popped his head through the window with his intangibility and said, “You two should get out of here! Kaetlyn is Food Fight’s target so she’ll be in the most danger.”

He knew Reid would freak if he let her stick around. At least the ghost wouldn’t be hearing anymore complaining.

Reid nods, taking Kaetlyn’s hand. He was about to run through the back entrance, but the girl slipped away and ran outside the front.

Danny didn’t seem to have a chance against this akuma. It beat him up pretty bad and he had left no scratch. He lay on the floor, nausea causing the world to spin like crazy.

“Stop it! Mom, I swear I had a good reason to ditch school!” It didn’t sound all to convincing, but what else could Kaetlyn do? Her miraculous was nothing more than some broken bracelet.

Food Fight stared down at her. The monster’s eye glimmered like gold. Whatever made up its eyes, it couldn’t be any type of consumable product. Wait, could it be…

The giant lowered its arm and wrapped its literal sausage fingers around Kaetlyn, picking her up several meters off of the ground. Its grip didn’t suffocate her, but it still felt painful.

“No! We need her alive!” Desiree hissed, invisible for no one to see. The akuma occupied Danny Phantom too much for him to notice her.

Reid could do nothing but call out Kaetlyn’s name in fear and rage. Danny took the initiative to fire a ghost ray at Food Fight’s wrist. It flinched and released the girl. Danny flew close to the ground, holding out his hands to catch her. Reid then ran up to help his girlfriend to her feet.

“Are you okay, Danny?” Kaetlyn asked with strong concern. The two boys had to remember she only saw him as Danny  _ Phantom.  _

“I’ll be fine. I’ve already had my vegetables so I’ll be strong enough to beat it.” He worked a grin to his lips, flexing his arms to reassure her. For some reason, Kaetlyn suddenly got a few Chat Noir vibes… The possibility of those two meeting crossed her mind. Oh, boy… won’t that be something…

Food Fight roared in fury, picking up the nearest car and throwing it at them. Danny Phantom held the couple’s wrists and turned them intangible. The car landed on them and bounced a few more times, spinning while doing so, and skidding into another vehicle. Danny let go and stood up. He winced in pain and hunched over. The other two immediately came to his side. Kaetlyn saw him as a partner she could trust, and Reid saw him as a best friend.

“There’s no way you can it like this.” Reid told the ghost. He must have gotten more use to Lune’s help than he realized. Danny’s dealt with worse, yet this was a challenge.

“ _ She.”  _ Kaetlyn corrected, “That’s my mom your talking about.”

Reid raised his hands in mock surrender. The trio turned their attention back to Food Fight as it two a rumbling stomp forwards. The second would end on them.

Ten pincers shot at the sole of the foot, sending and electrical zap and causing Food Fight to grunt in pain. It placed its food to the side from the sudden pain.

The trio turned their heads behind them where the pincers came from. Sam stood there with a gun in her hands, a metal wire splitting into the ten pincer.

Tucker then rode up to them on a scooter. Kaetlyn opened her mouth, but her replied, “Don’t ask! It was the best thing I could find on short notice!” He drove past them and under Food Fight, swerving to dodge its hand as it reached down to grab him.

“You rest up, Danny. Tucker and I will take care of this.” Sam reassured, then ran to help with Tucker’s distraction.

“I should probably mention we all help the famous ghost hero…” Reid gave a nervous smile. Only Lune had been told of this. Kaetlyn didn’t know until now.

“You can tell me all about it later.” The girl played along, right at Danny’s tail as she followed him out of the chaos. Reid followed suit.

They ran between buildings and jumped over alleyway fences until they found a secluded spot far away from the akuma. Danny was far out of breath and laid down to rest. The smell of filth didn’t help with anything. They hid by some garbage bins in the quiet part of town.

Reid and Kaetlyn stood just at the edge of the alleyway closer to the sidewalk. Kaetlyn tapped her finger with her arms crossed. Reid paced back and forth, trying to calm down. Why wasn’t Lune helping?

“What?” Kaetlyn asked with a miffed tone when she noticed Reid staring at her. He seemed to be thinking hard on something.

“I…” He paused to choose his words carefully, “I want you to go home. It’s safer than being here.” He quickly added the last part once he saw Kaetlyn about to retort.

“I suddenly learn you and our friends fight  _ ghosts  _ with the Fentons’ gadgets that miraculously _ work _ and doesn’t prove they’re crazy, and you want me to go home? Because it’s  _ safer  _ for me?!”

“Ye-”

Kaetlyn snorted. If he knew what she did during situations like these, he wouldn’t be saying this idiocracy. Or maybe he would be more worried.

Reid’s eyebrows creased, his nose wrinkling as he tried to figure out how to persuade her. “After all of this, maybe we can teach you how to use some of the equipment, but right now your-”

“Weak? Helpless? A damsel in distress?” Thank goodness she couldn’t transform, because she really wished she could just to prove him wrong.

“I was going to say defenseless…”

Kaetlyn’s eyes widened in bewilderment, then it quickly twisted into a furious expression. Her shoulders tensed, fire lit up in her eyes, she raised her hands and wanted to punch something. She wanted to call out, “Moon Rise!” And show she was the best chance they had at beating Food Fight. As both the daughter of the akuma and the one with the most experience in Amity Park. She wanted to scream, to break something, to say all of these horrible things that swirled in her mind.

Instead, Reid jumped back when she rammed her foot into one of the garbage bins. A hollow metallic thud coming from it. Kaetlyn then huffed, her emotions tiring her. So much in one day. In less than twenty-four hours she lost her Fenton Thermos, her kwami, and now her mother had been akumatized, and she couldn’t do anything to stop it! For so long she had Lune to rely on, to give her strength, to make her feel important. 

Paris knew her as the third hero. As someone the Parisians could cheer on when they felt endangered from an akuma. Then her miraculous broke. Her costume became bandages and tattering material. She lost her hook swords and had to rely on broken chair legs and pipes to defend and attack. Maybe if Aquila was less of a loner, he would be helping Chat Noir and Ladybug in her place. It would at least settle her more when she worried if those two could beat the enemy without her. Her mind would wonder if they even needed her in the first place. The duo were doing fine on their own. They managed to beat her easily when she turned into an akuma. Was Lune simple dead weight? Just another person Ladybug had to find a role for? Even with the wolf’s help, she needed to recruit others like Queen Bee and Carapace. Arden had mentioned something about a few more heroes showing up. Kaetlyn’s friends did just fine fighting Ghosts without her, and Ladybug had so many other heroes that she probably forgot about Lune.

Kaetlyn felt something warm wrap around her. She felt another’s heartbeat on her back and their breath on her shoulder. 

“I’m sorry.” Reid’s voice shook. He hugged her from behind, his head on her shoulder and her arms around her sides. The girl just noticed the hot tears rolling down her cheeks and wiped them away.

“No… No, your right. I should head home. That way and can show Mom I’m okay once you guys beat Food Fight.” Her voice croaked. She forced a weak smile on her face and pulled away from Reid’s hug. She needed to be strong right now. She needed to go home and recollect herself. After this, maybe she can help as a normal girl using sci-fi gadgets her friend’s parents built. She suddenly wondered if Mr. and Mrs.Fenton even knew what her friends were doing. A genuine smile spread across her lips at the image of Jack scratching his head as he looked for the Fenton Ghost Fisher, then Maddie suggesting he probably lost it with him being so clumsy and goofy.

“I can take you home.” Reid offered.

Kaetlyn shook her head, drying her face with her jacket sleeves. “No. You need to keep that ghost safe.” She pointed at Danny, who had the energy to stand up.

“Oh please, like I need  _ his  _ help.” The ghost boy told her sarcastically.

Kaetlyn smiled at him, then waved goodbye to the boys and walked home. Again, she grew up in this place and has gone almost everywhere. It would be easy to find her way back.

However, she only used her house as a checkpoint. From there she could see Food Fight’s head in the distance. The girl hoped Sam and Tucker could last a little longer. Maybe Danny Phantom had already flown him and Reid to the scene. If he did, her boyfriend would get angry when she saw her riding her bike straight into the face of danger.

Kaetlyn hadn’t used the thing in so long. The tires were a little deflated but it wasn’t enough to deter her. If she could get high enough, she might know where the akuma is hiding. 

Finally arriving, Kaetlyn hid behind some rubble. The buildings and roads had been damaged, but her friends were holding up pretty well. She threw her bike to the ground and sprinted up to the akuma.

“Hey! Mom!” She called, cupping her hands around her mouth. The food giant turned its attention to her. Sam and Tucker stopped attacking when they heard her.

Kaetlyn saw a golden gleam in the enemy’s eyes. The same as before. She grinned at the fact that her hypothesis might be proven true.

“Get her!” Desiree hissed. Food Fight bent down and picked up Kaetlyn. This time, the girl let it. She didn’t squirm or try to break free.

“Kaetlyn!” Reid shouted in anger. Danny had flown him here just like she thought.

“I have an idea and you better not stop me!” The girl shouted at him. Danny swooped down to place Reid on the ground and flew up to Food Fight. He shot a ghost ray at its palm as it reached out to grab him. It growled in pain. Danny flew around, shooting for ghost rays.

Food Fight eventually had enough. The food that made up its body rolled and collected at it free hand. From its finger, food flew at the group. Vegetables, meat, dairy, it all threatened to drown them in food.

Kaetlyn pleaded for the giant to stop. This wasn’t a part of her plan. The akuma didn’t listen. From apples to cookies, ice cream to to ham, it flew with no intent direction. Some pies splattered on brick walls, peas flying like bullets. Sam dodged the slices of ham that flew at her, and Tucker avoided the carrots and lettuce.

“As  _ if  _ I would break my meat streak!” The boy yelled.

Danny Phantom intervened and used his ghost shield to block whatever food he could from his friends. With Food Fight distracted, Kaetlyn squeezed out of its clutches and climbed up its arm. She needed a few more minutes and everything can go back to normal.

Reid noticed her scaling the akuma by the time she reached the top of its head. He yelled for her to get down. To stop whatever she had in mind and to leave it to him. 

Food Fight heard this and turned its head up. It only made Kaetlyn tighten her grip to keep from falling. Danny flew to the rescue, his speed catching up to a bullet’s. Food Fight raised its arm to take Kaetlyn and created a strong gust of wind and stopped the ghost boy in his tracks.

The girl managed to pluck out the akuma’s eyes, which were golden stud earrings that glimmered in the sunlight. Food Fight roared as purple smoke engulfed it. It waved its arms, creating wind strong enough to blow Danny Phantom backwards and leave holes in several stone and brick buildings.

The mass of smoke grew smaller and smaller, Kaetlyn coming closer to the ground as it did so. When the smoke fizzed away, the girl sat on the ground next to her mother.

She gasped and wrapped the woman in a tight hug. She returned the favor with a hug even tighter.

“Ah, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to get akumatized!” Her mother apologized.

“Mom, it’s fine. It’s my fault for skipping.”

She pulled her daughter away, her hands on her shoulders. “About that…”

Kaetlyn played a smile, nervously laughing. She then remembered Danny Phantom. “Eh… Hang on. You can ground me later but I need to check something!” She stood up and ran where the ghost boy had been flung to. Sam came to help her friend’s mom.

Kaetlyn followed the trail of damaged buildings until she found Danny -Fenton?- rubbing his forehead as his sat up from the dented roof of a car. He gasped, “Wait- The akuma!”

With a bright flash of light, Kaetlyn watched as a white hoop split into two and transformed Danny Fenton. Instead of black hair, he had white. Instead of blue eyes, he had green. Instead of a shirt and jeans, he had a blak and white jumpsuit.

Instead of Danny Fenton, there on the car stood Danny Phantom.

The ghost- the boy- her friend noticed her just as he changed. Their eyes were just as wide. Kaetlyn’s filled with confusion and shock, Danny’s filled with fear.

“K-Kaetlyn, I can explain!” He flew up to her and the two white hoops reappeared, changing him back to how he normally looks. “I-I-It happened right after you left for Paris so we weren’t sure to tell you or not, and-”

The girl held her hand up for him to stop talking, and he did. He leaned back from hunching over and anxiously waited for her to respond.

“Where did you turn into a ghost?” Kaetlyn asked flatly.

“Uhh…”

“ _ Where  _ were you when ‘it happened’?”

“The basement at my house.”

“We’re all meeting there tomorrow.” She told him, her calmness taking Fenton by surprise. “I’ll come over right after lunch.”

Then, she walked away. She walked back to her mother, then her bike, and they walked home together. Danny was left having to explain to the others what just happened.

 

______________________________________________________________

 

“So she knows.” The ghost woman stated, closing the small tear she created to watch the whole akuma attack unfold. Lunna hovered beside her, flinching when her owner spoke to her.

 “Help her get back to Paris. Don’t waste time or I’ll get her there myself.”

A small tear just big enough for the kwami appeared in front of her. Lunna looked up at her owner, then reluctantly flew through.


	15. Teaming Up

Jack Fenton stood in the basement, pushing the big red button that opened the Fenton  Ghost Portal to the ghost zone. Last time, there were ghosts lining up to escape into the human world each time the portal opened. This time, only one slipped through. He grinned to reveal wicked sharp teeth and only celebrated his victory when flying above ground and into the streets of Amity. 

Admiring the view, he took in all of the sounds and colors. All of the tangible people and the bright light from the sky. He managed to get clothes of the modern world, but he’s never been outside of the Ghost Zone since he died. It definitely felt foreign to him.

He came across a building that peaked his interest. Humans who looked to be around his age walked in and out. Maybe he would be interested in whatever they were doing.

Phasing through the walls, he entered a store filled with a large diversity of things being sold. Comic books with heroes he’s never heard if before. There were piercings, action figures of new characters, hair dye. Ooh, maybe he could get a new colour. 

Some jackets caught the corner of his eye. They were on sale, but the prices were awfully high compared to what he was used to.

He had turned visible and tangible to try the hoodie on. He only had one arm through the sleeve when he heard a woman come up to him. She couldn’t be too much older than him.

“I like the hair. How long did that take to grow?” She asked with a still voice.

The ghost suddenly realized his wild mohawk. Big and poofy. He had grown so used to it that he ignored his bangs falling over his eyes.

“Few years. Not many can pull it off like me.” The ghost smirked at her. It seems goth clothing has changed over the years, but it didn’t stray enough to stop from getting weird looks from concerned parents.

Her large amount of bracelets and necklaces jingled at her slightest movements. “What about your ears and teeth? Cosplaying or what?”

He brought his fingers up to his pointed ears. Along with his pale purple skin and red eyes, it would make sense for someone to assume he played a character; If that’s what cosplaying meant.

“I’ll go with ‘or what’.” The ghost went along with it. It’s no fun when you’re just given the answer.

He slipped his other arm through the jacket sleeve and adjusted the collar. He stared at the woman dead in the eye as he turned invisible. Her eyes widened as she tried to process what just happened. He knew she would wonder if she had made him up. A simple hallucination.

The ghost snickered as he explored the rest of this place. It’s been a while since he had some sugar. Maybe he could raid a candy store. A chocolate bar sounded perfect right about now.

 

________________________________________________________

 

The sound of glass dishes clinking together filled the kitchen. Yep, Kaetlyn got grounded for skipping school yesterday. She was stuck doing all the housework and had access to absolutely no wifi. The only time she could watch a movie is if her parents wanted to watch something and she happened to be in the same room. It wouldn’t be as bad if she explained her reason for wandering the streets, but how’s she supposed to explain she lost her magical wolf kwami that turned her into a superhero without sounding insane?

Kaetlyn finished washing the dishes, then ran upstairs to “go to bed early”. It wasn’t a totally unbelievable lie. With no phone, television, or computer, all she had to pass the time was sleep, homework, and chores.

The girl closed her bedroom door and turned off the lights. She waited a few minutes in her bed just in case Mom or Dad decided to check on her. When the coast felt clear, Kaetlyn jumped out of bed and pulled on her shoes. She slid open her bedroom window and stared at the ground below.

“Where are we going?” Lunna asked softly.

Kaeltyn’s eyebrows creased when she replied, “To Danny’s place. It’s not that late so everyone should still be there.”

“Wh-why?” The kwami lowered her ears when her miraculous holder’s angered eyes met hers.

“My friend, Danny Fenton? He’s the ghost hero; Danny Phantom that I’ve been working with.”

Lunna tried to sound shocked, as if she never heard this news before. It didn’t sound too convincing with her being so scared, but Kaetlyn didn’t seem to care. The girl wasn’t the only one unable to explain her actions. Lunna had waited for her to return in her bedroom. Kaetlyn got rather upset that the kwami vanished without a word. She didn’t blame her for still being mad, but it made the simplest of things difficult.

“Moon Rise.” White light shone from the window. Lune popped out and climbed up to the roof. The wolf then made her way to Danny’s house. Well, she stopped a few blocks down, turning back into Kaetlyn and letting Lunna comfortably hide in her hood before walking the rest of the way.

She knocked on the door and waited for Maddie Fenton to answer. She let her in and told her Danny and their friends were in the basement. Kaetlyn already knew that information, but she smiled and thanked Maddie anyways.

When the girl walked downstairs, everyone turned to her and gave varying looks. Kaetlyn was aware of the gravity of this situation. The day before she had seen Danny Fenton turning into a phantom. Her partner for fighting crime ended up being her childhood friend. It explained so much she didn’t understand hiw she was unable to see it before. Her friend helped him when Lune couldn’t, and Kaetlyn couldn’t be told so they left her in the dark.

“So…” 

“Kaetlyn, I know you’re upset, but in my defense, I tried convincing them to tell you the truth but they thought it would be best-“

The girl covered his mouth with her hand. “Relax, I’m not that mad.” She sighed, her eyebrows drawing together.

“Phew! Good! I thought Danny would have to deal with another bully at school.” Tucker spoke his mind all to casually.

“What?! What do you mean bully?” 

“Uh…”

Sam cut in, “I think what this dunce is trying to say is we thought you’d hate us for keeping an important secret from you.”

“I have plenty of questions on that, but I’m shocked not mad.”

The four of them let out one large sigh of relief. Kaetlyn crossed her arms. These people really thought she’d leave them? Well, maybe it would be a situation if she didn’t have to keep her own identity. Luckily for them, she couldn’t get too angry without being a hypocrite.

“Okay, first question: How on  _ earth  _ did you become a ghost? Or were you always one and just kept this from me for 16 years?”

“First off, I’m a half ghost. Second, my parents built a ghost portal.” Danny motioned his hand to the octagonal doorway with black and yellow paint on the metal doors.

“So...is that how ghosts attack Amity?”

The other four nodded simultaneously.

“...How did that turn you into a ghost? Sorry,  _ half  _ ghost.”

Danny explained how Sam wanted him to venture into the portal. At the time, it was recently built and inactive so they didn’t think anything would happen. When walking inside, Danny had accidentally pushed a button that turned the portal one. With some comic book worthy freak accident, ghost DNA mixed with Danny’s human DNA and gave him ghost abilities that are enhanced when in his ghost form. As a human he can still turn intangible and invisible, but otherwise he can’t do much until he’s a phantom.

“Aaand you didn’t tell me then, because…???”

“We thought it would be hard to believe.” Danny replied.

Kaetlyn looked at him, her eyebrows furrowed. “I dealt with akuma attacks on the daily!”

“That’s what I said!” Reid butted in, swinging up from his chair that sat at a desk full of papers and incomplete inventions.

The girl added, “Purple moths fly around turning people evil! You think ghosts would be that hard to believe?! I’ve heard about you in the news only a while after moving to Paris!”

“Maybe it would have been better to tell her sooner…” Sam mumbled.

“Would’ve kept my hearing.” Tucker whispered to her.

Ultimately, Reid and Kaetlyn ganged up against the other three about holding this information. Reid was just happy someone finally agreed with him on this. Tucker rolled out of the argument on his swivel chair to play games on his phone. Sam stayed to back Danny up.

“A fight against couples…” Tucker sarcastically sighed a little too loudly.

“What was that?!” Danny and Sam loomed over him with faces still agitated from their previous argument.

The other couple… The  _ only  _ couple sat in the background and snickered as they refrained from laughter.

After everyone had calmed down, Kaetlyn got to ask a few more questions before having to go home for the night. She lied in her bed, writing everything she knew in a notebook so there was no chance of forgetting. Of course, she could always just ask Danny again, but that would probably make him annoyed. She smirked at the thought, though.

When she finished writing, she placed the notebook on a nearby shelf before turning to her side and getting a few hours of sleep in. 

She replayed the conversation in her mind. How Danny turned into a ghost, why they wouldn’t tell her he had ghost powers, the abilities they were aware he had, some recurring ghosts the group fought. There was little talk about her joining them. It might give her an advantage if she ghost hunted as Kaetlyn. Lune would have better knowledge on the gadgets she might have to use. She would probably get a second thermos so that would be one for ghosts and one for akumas. Kaetlyn wondered what would happen if a ghost ever got jumbled in Hawk Moth’s evildoing. What if that woman was another pawn of his as well? 

The girl would have to find a way to see her again. Question her or send her to the ghost portal. Kaetlyn hasn’t heard of a ghost that can create portals. Then again, there was a ghost living in metal armour, a ghost that can control boxes, one that seems to only control meat, her friends even told her of a ghost called Fright Night that attacked during Halloween. Despite being the one who activated the portal in the first place, Danny was directly responsible for the ghost’s mess last Halloween. 

During that time, Kaetlyn was helping Nino make a short story about Paris’ three heroes turning evil. The principal didn’t like this idea, but it was still fun being a part of it. She didn’t play Lune, of course. Kim played Chat Blanc, Alya wore Antibug’s costume, and Juleka wore Eclipse’s. Rose’s idea on Lune’s villain name.

Kaetlyn opened her eyes. She heard something cladder and bang outside on her side of the house. She got up and peered through the window. She saw some strange guy kicking the garbage cans down. He looked much older than her. Was he just some college dropout? A delinquent? The girl thought adults had better ways to spend time than making a mess. Like paying off school loans or slaving away at a job. At least her parents liked their job.

“You can just clean it up in the morning. Or maybe one of your parents could-” Lunna stopped when Kaetlyn slid the window open. “Hey, wait!”

“Ay! College guy!” The girl called with a snap at the end.

The man looked up, a wild black mohawk and clothes a little outdated.

“Like college would do any good for me.” He grinned with no care in the world, he waved her off as he continued, “Why don’t ya go to bed? It’s outta be past yer bedtime.”

“At least I know I have better things to do than mildly inconvenience some random family.” She bit. Kaetlyn jumped back when the man’s feet turned into a tail and he flew up to her window.

“Dare ya to say that again.” His voice kept its nonchalant tone, but his brows pulled together with scorn towards her.

“A ghost?” She kept a straight voice with more annoyance than anything else, which disappointed him. The man squinted his eyes to express this.

“Not scared? Not surprised?” The ghost leaned closer to her face. Kaetlyn backed away. She considered if transforming in front of him would be the best option. No, absolutely no one could know her identity.

“There’ve been plenty of ghosts in Amity…” She kept her eyes locked on his, slowly backing to the wall behind where she kept the gadgets Danny gave Lune. Kaetlyn now stood beside her drawers, the bottom drawer holding the earphones, specter deflector, and the grappler

 The ghost’s face twisted into a scowl, an eyebrow raised. His confused face? He laid on the windowsill, his leg hanging off of the edge and his arms crossed.

“I’m surprised this place isn’t up in flames. I’ve heard of some goodie-two-shoes ghost that protects this place. Haven’t seen ‘em.”

“You’ve never been outside the ghost zone…” Again, more of a statement than a question.

“It’s been a few decades. Actually, what year is it?”

Kaetlyn slowly bent down and pulled the bottom drawer out, taking the specter deflector and wrapping it around her waist. The ghost looked at her, what she previously assumed was his confused expression playing on his face again.

“Name?” The girl asked, trying to work a smile on her lips.

He looked at her, eyeing her up and down. He suspected something, but didn’t take much threat since his shoulders relaxed and his posture slouched. “Bah. How could my name be used against me?” He then turned to her, “Michael Graves.”

“Hmph.” In one sweep, Kaetlyn pulled out the grappler and shot a green net at Michael. His eyes widened right before the net caught him and pushed him out of the window. He fell into the pile of filth from the trash cans he kicked down.

“Nice! Now to get Danny’s-” Lunna stopped again. Kaetlyn let out a shuddering sigh. 

“I don’t have my phone and Mom took the wires to my computer. There’s no home phone either.”

“Doesn’t your dad have his office downstairs?” Lunna asked as her miraculous holder walked to peer over the windowsill. Michael Graves tried untangling himself from the next. It nullified his ghost powers so he couldn’t fly or phase through.

“Like I know his password? It’s a whole other thing to find where he keeps it.” She turned back to the ghost with a weary look. “Aghh… Lune is all we have.”

She peeked out the crack in her door. With the coast clear, she hurried downstairs as quickly and quietly as possible, a flash of white light shining through the living room windows as she past them. Lune walked out of the front door, running the direction opposite of the ghost before turning back to make it seem she just happened to be passing by. If she couldn’t trust even her boyfriend with her identity, why an enemy?

Lune leapt onto the roof of her house, looking around. She glanced down and cocked her head at the sight of the ghost struggling in the nets. She jumped down and landed on the edge of filth he laid in.

“Who are ya?” He asked menacingly, grinding his teeth.

“Someone to cleans the streets. You look like trash right now.” She tried refrain from smirking. Insulting him felt good after their first encounter.

“What ya gonna do?”

“Throw you back in the ghost zone.”

Something clicked. Lune noticed this. In fact, she could see the gears in Michael’s head working with such speed.

“A bad costume ain’t gonna fool me.” He told her with venom.

“I…… don’t know what you’re talking about.” What could she do? She had to kick him out of Amity, but she had no means of communication. Danny would suspect something if she went to his house and suddenly knew his identity. Not to mention how his parents would react with a superhero lugging around a ghost like a bag of trash. No amount of excuses could help her get away with the situation smoothly, if at all.

“Ya do. Yer that girl upstairs.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Her words were clipped. She took the net and dragged him to Danny’s house. Maybe she could at least sneak in. It was late so everyone should be asleep.

“Yer acting ain’t that good. As soon as I threw it out there you reacted way too suspiciously.”

“What was it about  _ ‘like college would do any good for me’ _ ?”

“Hmph.” Michael let gravity weigh him down, making the trip cost for strength and time. At least knowing the girl had a hard time pleased him. 

He perked his head up when he saw a green line glow in mid air. It stretched out to show the glowing gold-brown eyes of a woman. The shadows concealed anything else about her identity.

He stared at her in bewilderment, reacting when the woman and green light disappeared. He jumped when she reappeared right next to him. Is this girl blind or is he hallucinating? How could she not notice the light from this portal thing?

The woman reached her hand out of the rip in she created, scratching a whole through the net with her fingernails. She pulled her hand back into whatever world she stood in, the rip closing in on itself before anything else could happen.

Michael, still perplexed, went along and accepted the event to escape. Lune noticed the change in weight and looked behind her to see the man flying away.

“Get back here you good-for-nothing!!!” The wolf spat. With a growl, she chased after him. He didn’t make it easy; Phasing through walls, taking sharp turns, flying low when she jumped on the roofs, flying high when she needed to jump down. It would take too much energy to run with the grappler, and he might escape again. However he did so the first time.

At this point, Michael just wanted to tease her, make this game of cat and mouse fun for him by making horrible for her. He even got to his feet and ran the rest of the way through Amity Park.

Lune leapt over a gap between roofs, the annoying ghost a few buildings ahead. She grew tired of this and jumped down to the other wide of the street. When turning his head, Michael didn’t see the girl. He slowed to a stop. Had she given up? Pity… It was just a game of tag, and he was winning!

He whipped his head around when hearing scuffed footstep. He saw a gray bandaged fist lung at him. He leapt back, leaving a cloud of smoke behind that looked silver in the moonlight.

While the girl hacked and coughed, Michael dipped between two buildings and examined himself. New… His body had taken a smokey effect, like someone could swipe their hand through him and blow him away. He left a trail of smoke with the slightest of movements. His lips pulled into a devilish grin. He didn’t know he had special powers beyond the basic tool kit of every ghost, but now that he knew about them, they could be used to his advantage.

Lune dropped down, standing up and clutching her fists.

“Oh? Ya prefer a fist fight?” He miniced the girl’s stance, but his arms blocked his face. 

She swung a furious punch, blocked by his forearm. Michael swung his fist, leaving a bruise on the wolf’s cheek. She stumbled back, her hand where he had hit her. This ghost was unbelievable! 

She’s dealt with Chloe’s harsh words and rich kid threats, she’s dealt with the bullying from jocks at Casper high, she’s even dealt with Xack and Reid’s childish arguing! But this guy, Michael Graves, he was insufferable. Lune thought adults were supposed to have  _ some  _ level of maturity, at least more maturity then a bunch of teenagers, but he’s been doing nothing but getting on her nerves. All he wants to do is make the people’s lives around him horrible. He wants to annoy them, make them sneer in fury, make them yell and break something to relieve their frustration. If not for everyone, he did it to her, and right now all Lune wanted was to punch him back into the ghost zone.

They through a few more punches, Michael currently winning. When Lune got too close to him, he’d move to the side and leave a cloud of smoke to fill her lungs. It smelled burnt and gross. Like a fire used to incinerate sweaty old clothes and the ashes were left to stink of the room.

“Ya know, you should respect yer elders. After all, with age comes wisdom.” Michael taunted. Lune swung another punch for him to easily block.

“You’re  _ far  _ from wise!” She snapped.

“I know more about the world than ya.” He stated, relaxing his stance, “I’ve seen more than ya. I’ve lived in a city with a lotta more people. A lotta more chances to be robbed or stuck in a fight.”

Lune charged at him. “CAN IT!” She swung a powerful blow the side of his head, her fingers gripped so hard it hurt. Her furious face untwisted into bewilderment. The ghost had caught her fist, wind being the only thing that blew through his hair. 

His fingers tensed and wrapped around her wrist. She couldn’t back away. Before she could attempt a kicked or second punch, Michael took his other hand and grabbed her arm, swinging her in circles before releasing his painful grip and letting her fly into the street. She skidded on the asphalt, scraping her joints and half of her face that stung. It felt like fire licked her injuries. Yet minor, these wounds hurt enough to make her shin wobble. The force of the impact is what harmed her most.

“Didn’t ya hear me?! I said a lotta more chances to get stuck in a fight!” He sounded angry for some reason, like he expected better.

“Sorry to disappoint ya.” Great, now Lune caught on to his slurred words. His accent matched that of a Brooklyn one, however. So it seemed he might actually be from the city.

“Aghk, I’m tired of this. Boring.” Michael Graves folded his arms behind his head and walked away from her.

“What?” Lune whispered to herself, then proceeded to yell at him, “Hey! You can’t just walk away!”

He ignored her and kept walking without the slightest of hesitation. The wolf growled, then bolted for him. She grabbed the nearest trash can and chucked it at him, garbage flying out of the container. The ghost didn’t react, but something strange happened. Something appeared below his feet, swallowing him before vanishing. 

At first, Lune assumed she hallucinated. Maybe she fell asleep on her bed and dreamt the rest, but her scrapes. They felt real. They heard more than it should. She can’t recall being in a one-on-one fight with a ghost. Danny seemed to have superhuman strength when they worked together. Perhaps it came with every ghost.

Lune scoffed, having trouble accepting this defeat as she worked her way back home.

 

________________________________________________________

 

The ghost fell through some black hole, not registering he did until a woman’s voice greeted him with a smooth yet intimidating voice. Either way, it was filled to the brim with power. He would have mistaken her for a queen. Or maybe she was.

“I escape that ghost void, now I’m stuck here?” He panned his head back and forth, seeing nothing but black with an eerie green around them.

“It’s not the ‘Ghost Void’. It’s my place. All to myself.  _ My  _ void.”

“Aight, aight I get it. It’s yers.”

“For a city boy, you certainly use some southern language.” She remained tall and proper, like a statue her followers would pray to and shower with gifts in honour.

“Old habits die hard.” He smirked. 

The woman examined him, scanning him and every aspect about him. Dark clothes, an overdramatized mohawk, purple skin, the way he poorly carried himself with a slouch. He had recently gotten a lip piercing removed before death with the way his lips moved when talking. An accent forgein to her, but not too far from the American accents she listened to. He acted slick and charismatic at times, but his head generally ointed to the ground gave away his nature. He only speaks when addressed, or when it’s for amusement like how he got on Kaeltyn’s nerves. He also revealed an exceptional level of intelligence when it came to observing. Perhaps he scanned the ghost woman as she did to him, both trying to figure out how the other worked.

“You’ve proven yourself skilled. I will admit that I am impressed.” She folded her hands behind her back, “You must have gotten into quite a few battles to reach where you currently are.”

“Being out late at night will give ya a few throws.” He shrugged, his hands in his stolen jacket pocket.

“What if you threw a few more?”

He looked up at her with half open eyes, suddenly pretending to be uninterested. Perhaps to get a reaction out of her.

“You see, I cannot leave this place. This ‘void’. To keep it short, if I leave, my immortality as a ghost will parish… and I will die… again.”

His lips twitched when trying to contain a snort. She flew closer to him, still giving the effect of superiority by hovering a few inches higher than where he stood.

“What. Ya got a grudge against someone?”

She nodded gracefully. Even her slightest movements were poised. “In fact, it’s the friend of that girl you faced earlier.”

He shrugged her off, taking a step to gain distance between them. “What did they do for you to hate a bunch of kids?”

“You hate that girl.”

“She got on my nerves. I simply wanted to get even.” He turned to avoid eye contact.

The ghost woman’s lips pursed. “Her friend is half ghost and half human.”

_ That  _ got his attention. His boot would have made a shuffling sound if this void had the ability to create any more noise than allow speech. He turned halfway to catch her gold-brown eyes. They were serious, and he didn’t take her as a person to kid often, if at all.

“Huh.” He straightened his posture, his arms folded behind his head and looked up. At least he thought that’s where he looked. “I’ve heard of ‘em. He’ll be flying around to put me back where I came.”

The ghost woman let the corner of her lip pull up as dead young man turned to fully face her, his shoulders relaxed and his hands lowering to his sides.

“Looks like I’ll be helping ya with an extermination problem.”

She left her lips fit a pleased and satisfied smile.


	16. Forming A Plan-ish

Kaetlyn sat in science class: The only class in school the whole group shared. She arrived early so she could properly frame her hair around her face. After fighting that ghost yesterday, she earned herself a few scratches on her side. She couldn’t explain to her friends that she tripped on the road as a superhero while fighting an annoying ghost. Instead, she hid these scratches with bandages and her hair. Reid would get worried and freak out. For some reason he would get too anxious when it came to her, especially during akuma or ghost attacks. Kaetlyn had pre-planned a story, but would prefer to avoid the topic altogether.

Sam walked into the classroom first. Expected from the most mature out of the five of them. She sat right next to Kaetlyn, who made sure to not turn her head too much.

“How’s your first few days being grounded?” Sam smirked teasingly.

“Perfect.” Kaetlyn grit her teeth through an obvious forced smile. She broke into a genuine smile. Sam took out her textbook and scanned over some notes. The girl suddenly jolted awake when it clicked.

“That test is today!!!” Kaetlyn scrambled through her satchel to to find the papers she hadn’t even touched. Her eyes locked onto Sam’s, who was prepared when she lunged for the notes.

“Your fault for forgetting to study.”

“Pleeaaaseee!!!” A girl bad at science combined with hours of free time lost due to crime fighting didn’t mix well with studying.

Kaetlyn noticed something caught her eye and snatched the notes, huddling over the papers as she scribbled them down and tested to see if she had a photographic memory.

“Kaetlyn, what’s with the band-aids?”

The girl froze, suddenly realizing what caught her friend’s eye. “A- uhm… Something knocked over our trash cans last night. I went to pick them up and got attacked by a cat.”

The goth had worry coating her eyes. Kaetlyn reassured her she cleaned the scratches and she’ll be fine. She reframed her face before Reid came to class, so he luckily wouldn’t freak out. She understood they were a couple and all, but at times it would get annoying. Everyone has flaws, though. It didn’t really feel right to complain about it.

She spent the rest of the day cautiously fiddling with her bangs and replaying her story in her head. If she heard it enough, maybe she would start to believe it was true. Kaetlyn couldn’t risk mixing up any details. Don’t add too many and don’t sound too vague. Say she had gotten scratched by a cat like she actually relived the memory when talking about it. Improvising didn’t always work well for her. She could pull a lie or excuse off easily if she had more time to plan it out. So sneaking off to get Lune’s help was always a small hurdle to leap over. It definitely helped with her athletic ability, though.

Kaetlyn ate outside for lunch. With winter approaching, it got chilly pretty quick. The afternoon was the warmest, of course, so the worst she got were gusts of wind that nipped her cheeks and nose. Still, no one really ate outside around this time unless they were immune to the cold. Kaetlyn wasn’t, but she needed some solitude in order to relax and take in everything that’s been happening the past couple of weeks. This strange woman, Lunna’s sudden disappearance and reappearance, Danny being a half ghost-human hybrid, and Michael Graves. The cat who knocked over her trash cans the night before. She didn’t think he had the ability to teleport along with his smoke powers. That woman who stole her Fenton Thermos seemed to be able to create wormholes… Could she teleport?

“Are you going to eat?” The kwami asked. The question brought Kaetlyn back to the front of the school entrance where she sat on the steps.

“Oh, yeah. The cold’s messing with my appetite. Nothing else.”

“That’s what you say.” Lunna shrugged and hovered above the jerky stick her miraculous holder got from the lunch line. She unwrapped it and took a mouthful. “If I had a teleporter like that ghost portal, I would use it to instantly take as much jerky as I want!” She smiled through chews.

“The ghost portal isn’t a teleporter. It rips a whole between whatever separates the human world from the ghost one.” Kaetlyn echoed what she wrote after her Q & A session with her friends last night. Something suddenly clicked.

Lunna noticed this look, “W-What?” She knew what she did, but a part of her wished it hadn’t worked.

“If Danny’s parents could rip a hole between  _ completely  _ different worlds, why can’t they rip a hole between two countires?” The girl jumped up, forgetting the food tray in her lap and gasping when her cheap lunch splattered down the staircase. She pulled her hood over her head and ran inside, fleeing from the crime scene.

“But if I could travel between Paris and Amity, maybe I could find some answers!”

“A-answers?” Lunna slowed from flying next to Kaetlyn’s shoulders. She caught up as she asked, “What would you need answers on?”

The girl gestured with her hands, “ _ Everything??  _ That woman wanted my thermos filled with akumas. If she wanted ghosts I’m sure she would have returned it when she only found butterflies. She might also be connected to Graves. Or he’s connected to her?”

Kaetlyn had gotten ecstatic over the idea. This was good. This… This is what is meant to happen. Lunna’s owner can take back her home after squashing what stands in her way. Her miraculous holder will be fine after all of this. It’s a win for everyone… Except those Kaetlyn cared for.

 

________________________________________________________

 

“You’ve known about my ghost powers for  _ one  _ day and you’re already trying to help?” Danny pulled a video game from off of one of the shelves in the store.

“Well… You’re my friend so I thought it’d be my first reaction.” Kaetlyn had her shoulder rested on a shelf full of plushies and other merch from the more popular games. “I say a wormhole would give easy access to the ghost zone? I’m still not sure what it is beyond a world of ghosts.”

“A portable portal sounds cool. We can call it the Portal-ble!” 

Kaetlyn gave him a flat stare.

“Working title.” He shrugged, “My folks would add Fenton to it.”

Kaetlyn sighed. She was about to reply with something witty and sarcastic, but then she remembered this version of her had recently known about the Fenton gadgets. Lune, on the other hand, was aware of them since summer.

“What do you think, though? Could you or your parents make it?” She asked as she followed Danny to the other side of the small building. Some outer space game caught his eye.

“Probably. Leave the blueprints where they can see it and they’ll build it eventually.”

“Maybe it can help us get quickly around too. To easily get to a ghost even if it’s across town.” Kaetlyn made sure to add before she forgot. This was supposed to help her get to Paris, afterall.

“Yeah, yeah. That.” He waved her off, the game in his hands stealing all of the attention. Kaetlyn knew he wouldn’t come back to earth for a while, so she walked out of the store and left him a text so he wouldn’t worry over her sudden disappearance.

She put her phone in her jacket pocket only for it to buzz again. Sam texted asking about her “cat” scratch. Lunna rested on the girl’s shoulder while Kaetlyn reassured Sam she’d be fine. Danny hadn’t noticed yet, and if he did, he didn’t bother asking. That’s not who her main concern is, however.

“So now what?” The kwami asked.

“Well… Now we wait. I can’t do anything without a way to get back to Paris. It’s not like I’m rich and can fly over for winter break.”

“It’s not even Thanksgiving yet.”

“Turkey break.” Kaetlyn corrected her previous sentence.

She walked for a little longer before her phone rang. She could only think of one extrovert that would call first and text later.

“Hey, Reid. Something wrong?” 

“Why is that your first reaction when I call?” He asked over the phone.

“Well-“

“Nevermind. Don’t answer. I just wanted to see how you’re doing.”

Kaetlyn smirked when he tried to change the subject. “I’m fine. Heading home from GameShop.”

“Didn’t know you went there.”

“Not really. Followed Dan-“ 

Something cluncked. Something whirred before tipping over and clinking. Metal hit the concrete and rolled. Something winked at her when the light touched it.

“-ny… I’ll cal you back when I can.”

“Huh, what’s wro-“

She hung up, removing the phone from her ear and shoving it in her jacket pocket. Her eyes stayed locked onto the object in front of her.

Lunna flew from the girl’s shoulder and hovered ahead.

Kaetlyn bent down to pick up the cool metal. It felt colder than death, almost as if the concept were a being and touched it. She held it in her hands, closely examining it at every angle.

“This is… Lune’s thermos…” Why? Where? How? That woman took it. Did she decide to return it? What use did she have with it in the first place?

Kaetlyn risked it and opened the thermos. Nothing flew out. No ghosts, no little butterflies or moths. So the woman wanted something to do with the akumas she kept in here? Or what if it was only one? If that woman could easily take the thermos whenever she wanted, who's to say she hasn’t taken the akumas before? It would explain how Hawkmoth could continuously send villains their way…

Villain or ally? If this woman were a friend, she would have to be either really socially awkward or prefer to remain unknown if she hasn’t introduced herself yet. Staying in the shadows could also mean she were and enemy, preventing the enemy from knowing anything about her.

Kaetlyn stood up, treating the thermos like an alien meteor from the sky. She suddenly remembered Lunna. The kwami stiffened when she looked at her with questioning eyes.

Lunna didn’t even have to make up a lie. She was as baffled as her miraculous owner. Why would her master return the thermos? It’s the only thing that keeps her akuma attacks from succeeding.

The girl opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. She couldn’t think of anything to say. Instead, she clutched onto the thermos and walked home. There’s so much she doesn’t know so what’s the point of asking questions? They’ll lead to more confusing things that no one could answer. 

The wormhole can be made, Lune can catch the akuma, she can catch the ghosts, she has Danny as a friend and ally to fight with him. Going to Paris will give her all of the other heroes to help her, if they will care enough. All Kaetlyn could think of now was if things will be in her favor.


	17. Nor Good, Nor Bad

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's a new character to be given a greater role.

He came back to consciousness. His head had been fuzzy and full of strange thoughts, but now he lied on the floor with a girl in a white wolf costume picking up his hearing aids.

Unsure, he cautiously took them from her hand and placed them in his ears. He then adjusted them to them to hear properly.

"What happened?" He asked. They were in Casper High's school theatre. Last time he checked he was hiding in the restrooms during lunch.

"You must have gotten upset and turned into an Akuma. They're a type of supervillain pretty popular in France." The wolf answered as she helped him to his feet.

Akuma… "I guess you're Lune? The news blew up about you during the mall incident."

"I'm pretty popular, aren't I?" She gave a weak laugh. Nervous? Maybe she didn't intend to give away her identity. Short brown hair. The hairstyle looked familiar.

"So that's what it feels like to become a supervillain?" He asked, brushing his fingers through his blonde hair. "I thought people became villains on their own accord, but someone was bossing me around…" He softly tapped his hearing aids. Let's see how much information she would give him.

"That's what Hawk Moth does. He finds negati-"

"Hawk Moth? Is that what she's called?" He interrupted. He knew the name and he didn't want her going into what they did as a villain. That's already been discussed since the wolf arrived in America.

"She?" Lune repeated the word, seemingly confused. So Hawk Moth is supposed to be a man? Then something is going on behind the scenes of this interesting show he had recently discovered.

"The woman's voice was so calming. She made all of the annoying sounds fade away."

Lune placed her hand on his shoulder. It took him by surprise, but he tried not to flinch. "For next time, maybe get some better hearing aids? Just stag positive and Hawk Moth shouldn't bother you again." She then ran out of the theatre.

He would take her advice and buy some new hearing aids. He had been saving up for a while. Staying positive, however, would be trickier. He spent too much time on listing facts and finding hidden goodies to stay remotely positive.

"Oh, you should probably head back to lunch." He jumped at the wolf's words cutting off his thoughts, "Some noise sounds better when it comes from friends."

He returned her smile, only for it to vanish once she left. He didn't bother following her. It would ruin the grand reveal later in the series.

He waited a little longer before exiting and taking his stuff from the bathroom. He walked in when a girl walked out of the neighboring girl's restrooms. He recognized her. Kaetlyn Shelle. He met her at a concert. He didn't enjoy that day one bit. His little sister wanted to go, so his parents made him drive her there. It was loud and he couldn't even enjoy the music. He met Kaetlyn Shelle Daniel Fenton, Samantha Manson, Tucker Foley, and Reid Forman there due to the front row tickets both groups had. He ended up talking to them, sadly. With his hearing aids broken he couldn't even turn the volume down.

* * *

A ghost known as Swarm had been causing a bit of terror in the episode was quite entertaining. He knew Reid had a problem with bugs, but he didn't know the boy had a phobia towards them. Interesting.

He watched as the girl, Kaetlyn ran out of her house with her father sprinting after her. Reid came from inside the building as well. He took the initiative to approach the boy. Good thing he happened to be taking a stroll when the ghost showed up.

"You're girlfriend's quite brave." He complimented, but no sincerity came from his voice.

"Jayden…" Reid said the name warily.

"Funny of me to expect you to call me 'Jay'. The old days were nice." The blonde approached the basketball obsessed teenager. He took a half step back.

"The 'old days' was last year."

"What about middle school? Oh, nevermind. Small talk is annoying."

"I should go make sure she's okay."

"Kaetlyn? I'm sure she'll do fine."

Reid paused. Interesting. "What makes you say that...?"

He knows something. Jayden brushed his fingers through his hair. "She seems like a strong girl. That's all. Stubborn. A fan of film?" He remembers seeing her walk into the classroom for class.

"I should go-"

"Her father is already after her. You doubt that man what makes you think you could do better?"

"I can do the best that's possible for me to do." Underneath his words poorly hid a low growl. Interesting.

"Then go. Be the 'heroic boyfriend' you were born to be." Jayden bent down to get in the boy's personal space. It worked. Reid backed away and ran off to find Kaetlyn. He never found her.

* * *

He stood in the store, enjoying the show. Well, not yet. There has been no big fights or over-the-top emotions. Simply a young girl shopping for older movies.

She whispered something and walked up to the cash register. Jayden watched with his green eyes. Nothing out of the ordinary yet.

The girl walked out of the shop. The boy hadn't noticed the change of scenery until his eyes followed her outside. The sky and ground blurred together with black. The only way to tell the difference was by the direction of green lines in the form of a grid pattern.

Kaetlyn looked up, noticing white letters above her head. Jayden looked around to see the customers had their names as well. That must mean he has his name above his head. He didn't look up, though. It's like a video game. He played more as a child, but he still understood enough to understand the world has transformed into a video game. Either this is the doing of an extremely powerful ghost, or an Akuma was running amok.

Looking outside, Kaetlyn talked to someone on the phone. Compared to everyone else, this girl took things rather calmly. Interesting.

She talked with her hands, motioning towards her movies. She listened to the other person on the phone. Something worries her. Then she yelled something at the person. Jayden walked outside and continued down the sidewalk as an innocent bystander.

"Call Danny Phantom! You guys work together!"

Oh?

"Ehuhhh… Hide and stay safe. Okay, byyyyyye~" Kaetlyn hung up, pinching the bridge of her nose, then took a deep breath in.

This girl new someone important. But she was only friends with Casper's losers. Did one of them...

"An Akuma? Again?!" The girl complained.

"I guess this is a job for Lune." A higher-pitched voice said.

Jayden walked away, not daring to look back. Interesting. There are many possibilities. He couldn't assume which one was true. Too bad he couldn't watch the rest, the filming took place in an area he could not access.

* * *

Watching Food Fight in battle with a ghost boy was much more entertaining lounging on a rooftop. Reminded Jayden how hysterical it can be when tiny people face large obstacles just because they're different than the rest. Watching this was better than any football game his father would have him sit through. Playing was much less fun, but the teenager would have gotten an earful if he didn't join a sport. Some too many boys thought they were men for tackling one another. Too much noise from the cheering and yelling on and around the field. Students like Dash Baxter especially made fun of him for being too much of a stick, but at least he was agile enough to dodge a dogpile.

Along with the "hero", four normal kids fought the Akuma. Samantha Manson, Tucker Foley, and, to his surprise, Reid Forman and Kaetlyn Shire. Interesting. Whoever Kaetlyn talked to the other day had to be one of those three, but she also counted as someone who worked with the ghost.

Jayden took another sip of soda, watching Food Fight destroy buildings. Kaetlyn climbed up the giant and didn't stop until she reached the head. He wondered if she would be flung off or fall. How would Reid react? Horrified. She was too precious to him. There was a second reason, but the blonde didn't feel like going down there to figure out at the moment.

The girl took something from Food Fight's face. It roared as purple smoke engulfed it and it began to shrink. Jayden lifted the soda can to be right above the monster's head from his point of view. He slowly let the soda spill out. It looked like acid melting the Akuma.

When the aluminum can became empty, he dropped it, hearing it klink on the asphalt ground below him. He stood up and made his way down the building.

* * *

Jayden sat in the chair at his desk. Homework had been neatly stacked on top of the wooden surface. His room was nice, neat, and organized. Like every mind should be. Thought it wasn't. Millions of things go through the brain within a second. Far too much for the brain to comprehend. Quite laughable, really.

He stared at the wall in front of him. Filled with shelves of yarn. A string hung down from each center-pull of yarn to a low level where he could easily each. Leaning over his desk, he braided different colors together.

"Lune knows of a villain named Hawk Moth. Reid knows something of Kaetlyn. Kaetlyn knows something of her friends." He paused, staring intently at the mix of colors in his hand, "And I know something of all of them."


	18. Bienvenue à France

Jayden braided his yarn. An activity that helped him think. Or maybe a habit he picked up from his grandmother. Who on earth will ever know?

He sat in his room, staring at his homework. A horrid thing. It took up too much time, but he had to finish it to keep his grades up.

Above, he heard the slightest of change in the air. The faintest of sounds no ordinary human could hear, but the house was too quiet for his tastes, so he had his hearing aids a little louder.

He looked up, seeing two figures staring down at him.

"Oh, hello." He greeted calmly.

"This kid's s'posed to be useful?" The man questioned the second figure.

"Of course. He's an extra pair of eyes, and a brain we need." A woman's voice said.

Jayden smirked. He couldn't help but let out a chuckle as he shook his head.

"Recruit, bribe, trick. Whether I'm disposable or not, I have no want to join your ranks."

The woman remained unphased. The man looked agitated with that snarl.

Jayden continued, "I found this little play, and I watch for sole entertainment. I don't want to interfere."

"Of course." The woman replied simply. She looked up at the man, who turned to her. Then, the portal shrank into nothing.

The house had already been covered in lights and decorations. Xack had heard enough Christmas songs and it was only the first week of December. It wasn't even snowing and children were ready for snowball fights, snow angels, and snowmen. Arden, on the other hand, adored the holidays.

"I get to wear pretty scarves and mittens, and think of all the other winter clothes I can get!"

"Why don't I get you a pair of gloves for Christmas?" Xack asked half-heartedly. He just wanted some hot chocolate.

"You can't tell me what you're going to get. It ruins the surprise." Arden said as she walked into the coffee shop. This place had a hot cocoa special every winter, so it lured in more customers throughout the day.

Xack suddenly realized how cold he was when his cheeks stung. It may not be snowing, but that didn't mean it was warm. His fingers were numb from the outside weather, and his hair had a cool touch when he tried to fix it after taking off his beanie. He took the extra jacket off and rested it on the back of a chair. Arden already stood in line to order.

Xack played with the silver chain in his hands. Maybe he could mail it. Or wait until he graduated to travel to America. The small crystal glimmered in the warm yellow lights, more beautiful than any snow day.

He saw Arden approaching and shoved the necklace in his pocket, his heart freaking out that he might get caught.

Arden sat down in the second chair, whipping out her phone and scrolling through new winter wear. Xack figured he should find something to do and took out his phone, only looking away when their order was called. He took the two drinks that warmed his hands through the plastic cups and set them on the table. Arden took hers and took a sip, only looking up when it burned her tongue.

"Should pay more attention." He said to her, stirring the marshmallows with the candy cane that came with his order. They enjoyed their drinks for a good while, the steam filling their noses with minty chocolate and their body becoming warmer with each sip. Xack worried if the extra marshmallows and whipped cream would be too much sugar for Arden.

Something caught his eye in one of the windows. White dots gently fluttering to the ground. He didn't think it would be snowing today…

Then something utterly confused him.

"Searching for Santa Claus far and wide!" A male voice shouted in the distance. Then a group of men echoed the chanted words.

"There's no way he can run or hide!"

"There's no way he can run or hide!"

Xack ran up to the window, seeing green army men marching in the streets. They were toys? These men were life-sized versions of the army men Xack used to play with as a child.

Through the frost collected on the glass, he saw giant catfish in the sky that breathed fire when they opened their mouths. He turned to Arden, her baffled expression proving she saw all of this too.

Arden ran outside, Xack chasing after her. There were more army men and even a giant T-rex shaking the ground!

"Look!" Arden shouted. Xack followed her gaze and saw a red sleigh in the sky. It was aiming for the ground a little too steeply to be a simple landing.

"I'll be right back!" Xack told Arden, sprinting in the direction the sleigh would crash. He didn't know why he cared or why he felt the Parisian superheroes would need help, but when he knew no one could see him he transformed into Aquila. Only wearing the suit made him shiver, but he kept running anyway. He had made his decision to assist in this obvious Akuma attack and he would stick with it.

He found the red sleigh emitting dark grey smoke with ruined presents all around the stone ground. The reins were loose and lacked eight reindeer, but the driver stood up from the ground and dusted himself off. He wore warm red clothes with white fluffy trimming and had a thick snow white beard. He wore a basket on his back that looked to still have presents inside.

"S-Santa…?" Aquila asked, unsure if this man was someone dressed up as the famous man, actually him, or the akumatized villain's creation.

The man looked at the eagle. "Yes, that's me." He said, "But I've crashed and can't get back into the air without my reindeer."

Aquila walked up to Santa Claus. Yes, actual Santa Claus. He couldn't help but pick up the gifts that he passed by, holding them out for Santa to take back and put away in his basket.

"I… a bucket of army men are looking for you."

"That's not good. I need to get back to the North Pole before Christmas. Otherwise, there won't be enough toys for all of the good girls and boys."

A third voice chimed in, "Santa Claus! Didn't expect you to come this early." Chat Noir said, "I would have done a few more good deeds to get on the top of your nice list."

"Yeah, well, we got a kid's military and then some searching for him. I think we should find a place to hide." Aquila suggested. Chat Noir nodded. He helped Aquila get Santa to the ice skating rink. The same one Aquila went to when Kaetlyn still lived in Paris. Reid was there too, upsetting enough.

No one but the owner of the rink stood inside. The man wore all white and had brown hair combed away from his face. He skated around the rink until seeing Santa and two superheroes.

Everyone settled in. Aquila went around to make sure every entrance was locked while the skater fanboyed over and Chat Noir talked to Ladybug over the phone built within his pole. Aquila came back to the group when Santa signed an autograph for the ice skater's daughters.

"It's nice of you to help, Aquila. Is the Christmas spirit getting to you?" Chat said.

"Huh?"

"I've been seeing more of you lately ever since Lune introduced us to you."

"Let's go with 'I got bored'" Aquila crossed his arms, trying to take up as little room as possible. Luckily, Ladybug lowered herself form the roof using her yoyo, removing the attention from him.

"I'm so glad you're alright," She spoke to Santas, "but what are you doing here? It's not Christmas yet."

"I have no idea. I was busy supervising the production of toys for Christmas with my elves when all of a sudden, bang! I woke up in my sleigh in the Paris sky. Flying catfished destroyed my sleigh. My reindeer were able to get away, but if it hadn't been for Chat Noir and Aquila, they would have captured me."

Ladybug leaned in to whisper to the guys, "Don't you think this whole thing is kinda strange?"

"I feel like you get used to it," Aquila replied.

"After fighting a pharaoh's reincarnation or a pigeon's overlord powered by magical butterflies, yeah." Chat Noir agreed.

The ground then began to rumble. Everyone covered their heads with their arms as the wall in front of them broke through and rocks crumbled.

"Haha! Gotcha!" A toy german shepherd laughed triumphantly. Behind it stood a giant T-rex. Toy soldiers quickly marched around the rink to surround them.

My sense of smell had sniffed you out, Santa!" The dog bragged.

Ladybug and Chat Noir jumped in front of Santa, readying their weapons for combat. Aquila stood on the other side and aimed his arrows at the soldiers.

"Christmaster demands his gift!" The dog shouted. So that was the kid's name?

Santa got mad at the dog's statement. "Christmas gifts must be deserved! And they're only given at Christmas. If you think I'm going to bend the rules, you're barking up the wrong tree."

Was that a pun?

"Now hold on a minute. There's no use in fighting. Now that's not the Christmas spirit, now is it?" The ice skater asked the toys, then continued to convince Santa to give out gifts early. Aquila could go for a new phone, so he didn't stop the man.

"Stop! That's not the way it works." Santa refused.

"Why not?" Aquila asked along with Chat Noir, the dog, and the ice skater. He really wanted a more recent phone model.

"Christmas rules are very strict. You don't open gifts early. I give them at Christmas, not at Easter or Halloween. Otherwise, you might as well have a bunny or witch delivering your presents.

"But couldn't."

"You make."

"An exception?" The three young men asked.

"Tradition is tradition!"

The trio's spirits dropped.

"Well, there is one case which I could make an exception for-"

"The best-behaved kid in the whole world. The one at the top of your list of good children." Ladybug interrupted Santa, who congratulated her for knowing the rules.

Aquila still felt bummed he couldn't get his gift. Thinking about it, he couldn't keep it anywhere while fighting Christmaster, and it wouldn't be very heroic to run away to enjoy his new gift in the middle of an Akuma attack.

"Attack!" The german shepherd yelled. The three superheroes charged at all of the toy soldiers, but both sides had forgotten they were in the middle of an ice rink and kept slipping. Aquila flew above the ice, but Chat Noir slid right into him and they ran into the wall. Ladybug followed suit.

The ice skater gracefully skated up to the heroes, telling them to protect Santa while he fought the toys. Ladybug swung out of the ice rink with her yoyo, Chat Noir extended his pole to carry him, and Aquila carried Santa wit his wings through the hole in the wall.

They found solid ground and kept running, Aquila flying at their pace.

"I think I know who the toys' master is. I should have thought of it sooner." Ladybug told the group. She came to a stop at the corner of the road.

"Well, who is he?" Aquila asked.

"I have to check first to be sure." Ladybug then turned to Santa, asking for his hat. He handed it to her, who placed it on Chat Noir's head. "You're up Santa Cat."

Chat nodded and split ways. The german shepherd was a toy, but still had the nose of a dog. This would redirect the scent of cinnamon cookies and a crackling fire. How much Aquila wanted to warm himself up right now. The orange flames hot enough to roast s'mores. But he stood in the cold with white snow and stinging winds. Hopefully, they could beat the Akuma soon.

Ladybug lead the way around Paris. Aquila had to carry Santa Claus while taking the sharp turns the heroine took. She stopped when she heard a boy their age shouting the name "Chris". He seemed familiar. Wasn't that the friend of the model in their school? The model was Adrien Agreste, but what was this guy's name again?

"Ladybug!" He shouted, running up to the group, "My little bro, Chris, he was in his bedroom and then he disappeared! Eh- Santa Claus?" He recoiled, just noticing the large man behind the heroes.

Santa gave the usual belly laugh, "Ho ho! Hello, Nino."

Nino! That was his name.

"Nino, I think Chris has been akumatized. Did you notice anything different about his room?" Ladybug asked.

"His favorite toys have gone missing too."

"Toy soldiers, fire-breathing catfish?" Aquila gave examples.

"Yes. Plus his dinosaur."

Confirmed: Nino's little brother had been akumatized. Since the toys wanted Chris' gifts early, the kid probably got impatient. Or maybe someone told him a story similar to Santa Claus' rules on Christmas.

"He could be anywhere in the city. How are we supposed to find a selfish child?" Aquila wondered. He noticed Nino hunch over, his shoulder drooping. Ladybug tried cheering him up and reassuring him everything will turn out good in the end. Then Aquila realized he just insulted Nino's little brother. As an only child, he couldn't truly understand that pain, but he would feel hurt if anyone insulted Arden.

"Sorry, Nino… I didn't mean to-"

"It's cool. I get how Chris can be."

Aquila couldn't help but feel guilty, but he couldn't help but feel invaded when something pressed against his back.

"Hold still." Ladybug told him.

"What are you doing?"

She took off whatever was on his back. He turned around to see her folding a piece of paper in an envelope.

"Where did you get that?"

"My lucky charm."

"... Oh."

Ladybug gave the envelope to Santa. He denied the letter. Of course, he would. No Christmas gifts early, and this was a letter to Santa Claus.

"What if the best-behaved kid gave you that letter?" Aquila reminded them of that one exception.

Santa Claus smiled. He took a scroll of paper from his basket and let it unroll several feet down the sidewalk. He checked the first name on the list.

"Unbelievable! Ladybug, you are the best-behaved kid in the whole world!"

"Well, seeing as she saved Paris a gazillion times, that totally makes sense," Nino commented.

"So what'd you ask for?" Aquila asked Ladybug while Santa read the letter.

Santa answered for her, "The same gift as Chris Lahiffe? If you get this, it'll be the only gift you get this whole year from me."

"This is to save Christmas and all of Paris. Not to mention it'd be helping Nino's little brother." Aquila said while Ladybug nodded along with his words.

"You definitely deserve to be on top of the nice list." Santa then took a small red box with a black ribbon from his basket and handed it to Ladybug, "Merry Christmas."

"Thank you, Santa. Now get to safety. We'll take it from here." Ladybug took out her yoyo and swung several streets down. Aquila followed her, leaving Santa Claus and Nino where they stood.

Aquila stood beside Ladybug in the middle of a wide yet deserted road. He watched as the heroine called out to the toys with the gift as bait. A yellow helicopter flew down, a metal claw taking the present and flying away. Aquila grabbed Ladybug's upper arms and flew far enough behind the helicopter to not be noticed. They kept flying up until they were above the clouds. In the middle of the white cotton balls, he saw a large colorful platform with walls and towers of giant building blocks.

Aquila placed Ladybug on the edge of the platform. She sprinted through the gaps in the walls while Aquila glide around behind the were no toys here. They all must be searching for Santa below in the city.

He landed waited behind a wall to the side of the platform. He saw a little kid in red and black clothing with white cotton trimming. He sat in a red and white checkered throne of buildings blocks, a snowglobe clutched in one hand. He laughed with excitement when the helicopter gave him the present. He wasted no time tearing the wrapping and taking an orange and yellow robot action figure.

After admiring his present, the german shepherd and a green camouflage teddy bear flew in on two catfish. They said they had captured Santa Claus

"He tried to trick us by dressing up as Chat Noir, but he couldn't fool us." The bear told Christmaster. Aquila saw a third flying catfish carrying a tied up Chat Noir dangling by a rope. He still had Santa's hat on.

"You were tricked! That's Chat Noir dressed up as Santa Claus! Not the other way around!" Christmaster stomped his feet in a tantrum. He took a red block from the arm of his throne and threw it at the teddy bear. It bounced off his face. "Keep searching!"

The catfish carrying the toys turned around and returned to the city.

"Give me your paw, kitty cat! Hawk Moth wants your ring." Christmaster demanded as he stomped up to Chat Noir. The cat struggled to escape the ropes. Aquila pulled back his arrow, aiming for the ropes wrapping around Chat Noir's body. Before he could fire, Ladybug's yoyo broke Chat Noir free instead. He jumped back to join the heroine.

A purple moth outline appeared above Christmaster's eyes. Hawk Moth told him something. Most likely to find a way to take Ladybug and Chat Noir's miraculous. He looked around and saw two conveniently placed Chat and Ladybug action figures by his feet. He laughed, picking up the action figures.

"I have my secret weapons to fight you with! Yourselves!" Christmaster held out his red snowglobe. He pushed the dolls into the snowglobe. It glowed as a bright white circle appeared in the sky, clouds swirling around it. The action figures fell through the hole, the size of giants compared to the real things.

The toy Ladybug called a plastic wrecking ball as her lucky charm. The toy Chat Noir's hand glowed darkly with cataclysm. The real heroes and toy heroes fought each other, leaving Christmaster to enjoy the show.

Aquila shot an arrow. It zipped by Christmaster's throne. The child looked the direction it came from, but Aquila was already behind him. He popped his head out from behind the throne, reaching to take the snowglobe. Christmaster recoiled.

"What are you supposed to be? Get away!"

This annoying little-

"Give me the globe!" Aquila grabbed the snowglobe but put himself in a game of tug-of-war with the child.

"You dum-dum! It's mine!" Christmaster then kicked Aquila in the stomach. He let go of the snowglobe and fell to the ground. Chat Noir had used cataclysm to destroy the toys, so now Aquila didn't have to fight this kid on his own. It shouldn't be this hard, though.

"No fair! My toys…!" Christmaster whined.

"Come on, Chris. Give me that snowglobe. You got your Christmas gift." Ladybug tried persuading.

Hesitant, Christmaster looked at his robot, then held out his snowglobe.

"No! Stop!"

Too late. A hole appeared in the sky and the robot fell through. It shook the ground when it landed. Aquila backed away, the size of this thing intimidating him. It pointed its fists at the heroes, lasers charging at its forearms. The trio let out a scream as they ran away from the laser beams.

"What are we going to do? I already used by cataclysm!" Chat screamed.

"Follow my lead."

Ladybug then turned around, taunting the robot as she ran towards it. She ran past it and jumped onto the leg of Christmaster's throne.

"Stop, Robo-tech!" The kid commanded, now at a shooting range.

Aquila flew up and landed on top of the robot's head, his arrow pointed straight down. "My arrows are pretty strong. Can even pierce through metal." He told the kid.

"You have a choice: The toy or the snowglobe." Ladybug said.

Christmaster stared at the globe, his face grew sad. Reluctantly, he handed the globe over to Ladybug. She thanked him before throwing it into the air. Aquila raised his bow and fired, the arrow piercing right through the snowglobe. It crashed onto the ground and a purple moth fluttered out.

Ladybug de-akumatized it, returning Paris into its formal glory. The swarm of ladybugs that repaired everything safely placed the group onto solid ground.

Chat Noir kneeled, asking Chris how he felt.

"Better, but I don't remember anything."

Chat took Chris back home, leaving Ladybug to transform back since she had used her lucky charm nearly five minutes ago. That left Aquila alone. He should head back to the coffee shop. Arden still waited there for him, undoubtedly.

He walked around to find a quiet place to transform. He was about when he saw an oval-shaped hole in the wall of the building next to him. It glowed with green and was tall enough for him to walk through. On the other side, Aquila saw a familiar figure. They were shorter than him and wore a white suit with grey bandages around her forearms and calves. She had short hair resting on her shoulders and green eyes staring at him. She stood somewhere in a small town, but he couldn't recognize any of the English writing on the buildings behind her.

"Lune…?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Hello! Sorry for the episodes I sometimes write along with being out of order. Season 3 had a mix up with the episodes and I couldn’t find the real order until recently. It’s the month of Christmas so I thought writing along with “Christmaster” wouldn’t be so bad. 
> 
> In other news, this concludes the second part of "New Life, New Alter Ego" (NLNAE). I will be spending the next few months properly planning and taking my time writing part three while on a hiatus. I want to make sure the final part is its best so I need time to put extra care into it. Thank you for understanding! And if you don't well... I can't really do anything about that now can I?
> 
> Happy Holidays! Hope you enjoy whatever you celebrate this time of year!


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